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STABLE and SILO CONSTRUCTidH 
FRANK SHERMAN PEER 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap.S^___., Copyright No 
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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TESTIMONIALS. 

The following are a few testimonials of the first edition published 

in 1881. The present edition is much larger and better 

in every respect. 



From W. E. Simonds, Hartford, Conn.: 

Your book is really a valuable one, I think I know what among 
the vast amount of agricultural rubbish is valuable. My mental classifi- 
cation of your book is alongside Waring's book on Drainage, and I 
consider that a very honorable companion. 

From W. G. Markham, Avon, N.Y.: 

Your work on Soiling is not only well written but exceedingly in- 
teresting and instructive, and must be a most valuable work, which ought 
to be read by every farmer and dairyman in the country. 

From Erich Parmly, New York City : 

I am reading your valuable work on Soiling and Ensilage and find it 
very instructive. I must put it into practice and get rid of some interior 
fencing. I have about seven miles of fencing, enough to make a man 
poor. 

From Wm. Kent, Palmyra. N. Y.: 

The best book on agriculture I ever read. 

From Chas. Woolcott, Canton, Ohio: 

There is more common sense agriculture in Mr. Peer's work on 
Soiling than in any book on farming I ever read. It should be a 
textbook in every agricultural college and every farmer's son should 
read it. 

From Country Gentleman, Albany, N. Y.: 

The work contains a forcible summary of the arguments in favor of 
Soiling, together with a concise statement of the author's personal ex- 
perience, including the arrangement of buildings, both as regards Soil- 
ing and Ensilage. 

Rural Home, Rochester, N. Y. 

\Ve have referred to Mr. Peer's system of soiling his stock of all 
kinds on occasions of two visits to his farm. We would advise farmers 
and dairymen to obtain this book and study it, 

Philadelphia Weekly Press. 

The book is a strong presentation of a system which must ultimately 
come into general use. We hope the book will have a wide circulation. 

Newark Courier. 

Mr. Peer is a practical man who has made agriculture a study, and 
by his original and progressive ideas has placed our farming people 
under great obligations. 



Soiling, Ensilage, and 
Stable Construction 



BEING A REVISED EDITION OF SOIL- 
ING, SUMMER AND WINTER ; OR, THE 
ECONOMY OF FEEDING FARM STOCK 



BY 



FRANK SHERMAN PEER 

Relating ihe experience of the author, giving the latest 

and most economical methods of summer and 

winter feeding and management of farm 

stock; also the construction of stables 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 



PUBLISHED BY 

M. F. MANSFIELD, New York and London 

MDCCCC 



Off... »f,;, * 



SECOND COPY, 



62510 

REVISED EDITION 

Entered, according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1900 

By FRANK SHERMAN PEER 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 



Copyright, 1900, by 
FRANK SHERMAN PEER 







r 



DEDICATION 

To the farmers' sons of America this boolc 
is dedicated, with the best wishes of the 
author, and with the hope that within its 
pages they may find encouragement to 
pursjc agriculture as a business, instead 
of leaving the farm for some so-called 
higher pursuit 



INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



There is little need of a formal introduction to 
the subject of soiling-. Most farmers and dairymen 
are more or less familiar with the subject through 
inquiries and articles that from time to time appear 
in the agricultural papers. To others who may 
chance to peruse these pages, I may say that the 
work is designed to answer the following perplexing 
questions, i.e.^ How can a farmer enrich his soil in 
a sure and economical manner? how supply his farm 
stock with the most nutritious food at the least cost? 
how obtain a full flow of milk from his cows during 
the entire season independently of parched pastures? 
how increase the number of farm stock or the acre- 
age of the farm without buying more land? how may 
the Eastern farmers successfully compete with the 
immigrant farmers of the West? 

An attempted solution to these and kindred ques- 
tions will be found in the following pages. 

In relating my own experience in conducting 
this system of feeding, and the wonderful re- 
sults obtained, I hope my readers will not accuse 
me of boasting of what / have done, or of what 
/ can do. 



viii Introduction to the First Edition. 

Nearly every farmer may practise the system with 
the same or even better results. Each vear's ex- 
perience reveals many new advantages of the sys- 
tem. 

I do not pretend that my conclusions will be found 
infallible under all circumstances, but I hope to show 
how the system was applied to my own farm, that the 
reader may obtain a clear view of its workings, and 
be enabled to carry on the system with such altera- 
tions as the different conditions under which he is 
placed shall suggest. 

I am not farming for pleasure, although I find a 
good deal of pleasure in farming. I follow farming 
for my daily bread, and the profit there is in the 
business. My farm operations are not supported 
by a profitable business or profession in town. 

I mention this that my readers will clearly under- 
stand that although this work contains some radical 
departures from "General Farming," they are not 
to be entertained bj^ the experiences of a " fancy 
farmer," a " book farmer," or a " city farmer." 

I have no apology for presenting this subject in 
book form. I humbly acknowledge that it is not 
written at " the earnest solicitation of numerous 
friends," but because I am very. much interested in 
farming as a business or profession, and I would be 
pleased to see more of our intelligent young men 
engaged in this pursuit. 

As a literary writer, I make no pretensions. If 
this work is well received, it must be entirely on its 
merits as a record of the personal, practical experi- 



Introduction to the First Edition. ix 

ence of a farmer; and if the reader finds as much 
pleasure in perusing these pages as it has given me 
to write them, I shall feel that my labor has not 
been spent in vain, nor the reader's attention claimed 
for naught. 

Maple Lane Farm, 

East Palmyra, N. Y., i88i. 



INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION. 



The first edition of " Soiling, Summer and Win- 
ter " has been exhausted since 1885. I have been 
trying- to find time ever since to go over the ground 
again and present the work in better form, but the 
convenient season has ever seemed to be to-morrow, 
so that between business cares on the one hand, and 
the thief of time on the other, weeks have stolen 
into months, and months into years, leaving the 
work unfinished. 

There was another reason (but I never liked to let 
myself admit it) . I felt that my work on soiling was 
a little premature, and I have been waiting for a 
sign that would indicate that it was wanted. 

I published the 1880 edition myself, because no 
publisher could be found who had the courage to 
undertake it. In the mean time, the Farmers' Insti- 
tutes were inaugurated throughout the country, and 
Experimental Stations in nearly every State are delv- 
ing into every possible nook and corner in a legiti- 
mate strife among themselves to be the first to mas- 
ter and give to the public the latest ideas in regard 
to every known subject pertaining to agriculture. 
So that, in a great measure, they robbed one of that 



Introduction to Second Edition. xi 

zest and force necessary to sit down to a task of 
writing- a book on any agricultural subject. 

I was subjected to much ridicule for my early en- 
deavors to introduce soiling, which was called " book 
farming " and " fancy farming," etc. And when, late 
in 1878, I built a silo, and came out strongly in favor 
of ensilage, it was thought by many to be the climax 
of folly, while others suggested that I " might have 
gone wrong in the upper story." In these days 
(1875 to 1880) I went about the State visiting farm- 
ers' clubs, and discussing soiling and ensilage. I 
was quite young at the time, just out of my teens, 
and my views — however reasonable they appeared 
while I was before my audience — lost much of their 
force, I fear, on account of my youthful appearance. 
However, I kept on talking soiling, in season and 
out, until the Farmers' Institutes were established 
and ensilage at least became a popular theme. 

Ensilage has produced quite a revolution in farm- 
ing, but that is only "winter soiling," and has not 
accomplished half of what may be done by pursuing 
the method all the year round, for, as I have always 
claimed, summer soiling has many advantages over 
winter soiling, as will be shown further on, so that, 
although ensilage has made such wonderful strides, 
it by no means represents the best half of the sys- 
tem. 

"Why then," it may be asked, "has ensilage pre- 
ceded soiling? " Principally, I believe, because it 
was a new and startling discovery, and required an 
outlay of capital to begin with. Soon after ensilage 



xii Introduction to Second Edition. 

made its appearance, manufacturers of feed cutters 
sent catalogues and circulars (advertising their ma- 
chines) broadcast over the country, agents can- 
vassed towns, exhibited their machines at fairs, and 
told exaggerated stories of the advantages to be 
gained by ensilaging corn fodder. They said that 
ensilage was a good thing, and that their particular 
machine was the only thing. Ensilage being a new 
departure, a new discovery, the agricultural papers 
were full of it, and later it became a popular theme 
for discussion at the Farmers' Institutes, where it 
was listened to because it was new and sensational. 

Soiling, on the other hand, was a question that 
every farmer was familiar with. Few could be found 
but that had practised it to the extent of cutting 
clover green, and feeding it to their workhorses in 
the barns, or had sown a patch of corn for their cows 
to be fed over the fence in the pasture field to help 
out the pasture in a dry season. In doing this they 
never discovered anything very wonderful, or strik- 
ing, or sensational, as was the case in the introduc- 
tion of ensilage. 

No one talked soiling, and altogether it had little 
to force itself upon the attention of the public. 

Soiling has been unfortunate in not being properly 
introduced. No one in all the country has a far- 
thing to gain out of the farmer by advocating the 
system or encouraging its adoption. 

I have lived long enough to discover that people 
will listen to good advice, and admit that it is good 
advice, but if they can obtain it for nothing, it is 



Introduction to Second Edition, xiii 

seldom appreciated, and rarely made use of. I 
believe that if it required an investment of a thou- 
sand dollars in patent machinery, the soiling system 
would long ago have been adopted on thousands of 
farms, where to-day it is not practised at all, or only 
done by halves. People appreciate everything by 
what it costs. 

Soiling costs absolutely nothing by way of new 
machinery or buildings, other than can be found on 
any well-equipped farm. I repeat that ensilage — 
winter soiling— has produced quite a revolution in 
agriculture, but summer soiling is as much more 
desirable and beneficial than winter soiling or en- 
silage as ensilage is better and more economical 
than hay and dried cornstalks. 

Another hindrance in America to the adoption of 
soiling is that our farms, as a rule, are too large, 
and the rather mistaken notion that if a person can 
make money on a hundred acres, he can make seven 
times as much on seven hundred acres. The farm- 
ers and dairymen with small farms will be more 
easily convinced of the practicability of soiling than 
the owners of large farms. Nevertheless, soiling is 
coming. I have watched its advancement with 
great interest, although it has not yet become a fash- 
ionable question for discussion at Farmers' Insti- 
tutes; and although the experimental stations have 
hardly touched upon it, there are unmistakable 
signs that farmers of the Eastern States are ready 
for it. Last year I had the pleasure of attending 
quite a number of Farmers' Institutes in different 



xiv Introduction to Second Edition. 

parts of the State, and I noticed there was hardly a 
question box opened but that contained one or more 
questions bearing directly on the subject. 

I came home from attending these meetings, and 
have since taken up the pen with renewed courage, 
and feel sure that now I shall have the pleasure of 
telling the good news to thousands who, a few years 
ago, had little or no interest in the subject. 

In revising this work, I have made but little al- 
teration in the text and main features of the first 
edition. I am able, however, to bring to this work 
more extensive experience with certain soiling crops, 
which at that time I knew little about. I refer to 
sorghum and lucern for cattle and rape for sheep. 
These I have enlarged upon considerably also a few 
new plants are mentioned, such as crimson clover, 
etc. 

In winter soiling the principal changes are in 
handling the crop and the construction of the silo. 

I believe I have given due credit to the agricul- 
tural press and agricultural writers whom I have 
freely called upon throughout the work. 

I have found that re-writing a book is a more 
difficult task than producing the original. I have 
been obliged to do this work at odd times while 
travelling by rail, stopping at uncomfortable hotels, 
or while making a winter's trip across the Atlantic. 
I feel, therefore, as the manuscript leaves my hand, 
that it somewhat resembles a clock that the great 
temperance lecturer, John B. Gough, was fond of 
telling about, to the effect that when its hands 



Introduction to Second Edition. xv 

pointed to twenty-five minutes past four, and it 
struck seven, he knew it was just one o'clock. So 
with this work, it matters little how the hands point 
or how it strikes, if you only understand that it al- 
ways strikes for soiling. 

I hope this work will prove a handbook and guide 
to soiling. I have dwelt quite at length upon sub- 
jects leading up to the work, that the fundamental 
principles of the system and its advantages may be 
firmly established. This I hold to be more essential 
than the methods of soiling themselves, because if 
the reader has a foundation that is safe and to which 
he can always return, although the conditions under 
which he may find himself may differ materially 
from my own, he will be able to cut a new line for 
himself. 

This work is, so far as the details are concerned, 
but a row of blazed trees through the forest. My 
effort has been, therefore, more to present the prin- 
ciples and advantages of the soiling system so they 
shall be clear, unmistakable, and undeniable, and if 
I shall be so fortunate as to accomplish this in the 
following pages and impart to my reader the will, 
my purpose shall have been accomplished, and his 
own good judgment may be depended upon to find 
the way. In that case he may make mistakes and 
meet with disappointments. He may stumble and 
even fall, but in getting up he will always be getting 
on in the right direction. 

Many have started soiling, but in a half-hearted 
way, and have given it up on account of some little 



xvi Introduction to Second Edition. 

hitch in the management. They have become dis- 
couraged simply because they failed to see the great 
benefits to be gained. Others have tried partial 
soiling; in this they have experienced nearly all the 
disadvantages and not over a quarter of the benefits. 
Others are convinced that it is the thing to do, but 
are afraid of what their neighbors will say if they 
should branch out in any new line. I have been 
through all this ; the lions in the way are not half as 
ferocious as they look at a distance, and although 
there is always a rod in pickle for any man who 
would be wiser than his generation, the reward is 
more than ample compensation for all such cuts. 
" He laughs best, who laughs last." 

Squawkie Hill Farm, 

Mt. Morris, N. Y., 1899. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Dedication, v 

Introduction to First Edition vii 

Introduction to Second Edition x 

CHAPTER I. 
Our Soils. 

Farming on an Exhausted Soil, 2 

Farming on Productive Soil, 3 

Farming on Government Lands, 4 

CHAPTER II. 
Our Plants. 

How to Feed Them, 8 

Comparative Tables 12 

Barn-yard Manure, 13 

Green Manure, 17 

Liquid Manure, 22 

Saving Manure (Plaster), 25 

Commercial Fertilizer, 25 

Oil Cake and Cotton-Seed Meal, 30 

CHAPTER in. 
Our Animals. 

How to Feed Them Economically, . . . .33 

The Cow as a Machine, 33 

When Insufficiently Fed, 35 

CHAPTER IV. 
Soiling. 

My First Lesson in Agriculture, 38 

How I Happened to Adopt Soiling, .... 44 



xviii Contents. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER V. 

Advantages of Soiling. 

Saving of Land, . -49 

Saving of Fences, 54 

Saving of Food, 56 

Better Condition and Greater Comfort of Farm Stock, 58 
Greater Production of Beef, Milk, and Butter, . . 63 
The Increased Quantity and Quality of Manure, ". 68 
The Increased Productiveness of the Soil, . . .69 
The Increased Acreage, 69 

CHAPTER VI. 
Partial Soiling. 

Inconvenience of, . .76 

Objections to, 77 

CHAPTER VII. 

Objections to Soiling. 

Extra Labor, 80 

CHAPTER VIIL 

Soiling versus Pasturing. 

Experimental Reports, 85 

CHAPTER IX. 

Rotation of Soiling Crops. 

Laying Out the Work, 89 

Crops for June, 90 

Crops for July, 92 

Crops for August, 93 

Crops for September and October 93 

CHAPTER X. 

Cutting and Gathering the Crops. 

Necessary Tools, Etc., 97 

Delivering to Barn, ....... 98 



Contents. xix 

PAGE 

Feeding, . . . . , , ... .98 

Caution in Feeding, . 99 

Manner of Feeding, 100 

CHAPTER XI. 

Barn Construction. 

General Plan, 103 

Objections to Masonry Basements, .... 105 

Ventilation, 109 

Water, . . . .116 

Handling the Manure, 121 

Manure Shed, . 126 

Liquid Manure, 127 

The Mangers, 128 

Cattle Ties, 131 

CHAPTER Xn. 

Stable Management. 

In Winter, 134 

In Summer; 136 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Soiling Crops 

Rye, 137 

Wheat, 138 

Barley, 138 

Oats and Peas, 139 

Corn, 141 

Sorghum, 144 

Sorghum Bulletin Reports, 146 

Non-Saccharine Sorghums, 148 

Kaffir Corn = 149 

Millet 152 

Clover, ' . . . .153 

Lucern, r . . 154 



XX Contents. 

PAGE 

Lucern Bulletin Reports, 156 

Crimson Clover, 164 

Cow Peas, i68 

Soja Bean, 170 

Prickly Comfrey, 171 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Soiling Sheep. 

The Advantages 172 

The Results, 179 

CHAPTER XV. 

Soiling Crops for Sheep. 

Vetches, 181 

Rape, 182 

Turnips, 187 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Portable Fencing. 

Woven Wire, i88 

Wooden Panels, 188 

Hurdles, ,....,.... 189 
Feeding Racks, igo 

CHAPTER XVII. 

« 

Manner of Soiling Sheep. 

Laying Out the Work, ....... 191 

Permanent Pasture, 294 

Feeding, 196 

Rotation of Crops, 198 

CHAPTER XVIII, 
Soiling Horses. 

Brood Mares and Colts, ...... 200 



Contents. xxi 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Winter Soiling (Ensilage). page 

History, 204 

Ensilage 7's. Cured Fodder, 208 

Palatability, 210 

Ensilage vs. Hay, 210 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Silo. 

How Large to Build, . . . . , . .215 

Where to Build, 216 

How to Build, 217 

General Plan of Barn and Stable, .... 222 

Stacking Ensilage, 224 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Growing Ensilage. 

Amount of Land Required, 226 

Preparing the Ground 226 

Variety of Corn, 227 

Harvesting, 227 

Filling the Silo, 229 

Power, . » . 230 

Pressing, 230 

Time to Harvest . . . 232 

Covering, 233 

CHAPTER XXIL 
Feeding Ensilage. 

Amount of Ration, ....... 235 

Cost of Production, 237 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Soiling 7/s. Ensilage, 

Comparative Value, ...,,.. 239 



xxii Contents. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Conclusion. page 

System, o . . 241 

Education, 244 

Farmer's Sons, . 247 



SOILING, ENSILAGE, AND STABLE 
CONSTRUCTION. 



CHAPTER I. 
OUR SOILS. 



The great problem of feeding and clothing the 
millions depends upon the success of agriculture. 
The day has gone by, in the Eastern States at least, 
when a man can "farm it," because he does not 
know enough to do anything else. There is no 
business or profession in which a man is obliged to 
have such a diversity of knowledge as in farming. 
Every day brings him face to face with widely dif- 
ferent questions. There are his cows, their man- 
agement, breeding, care, feeding, the disposal of 
their product. Likewise his sheep, horses, swine, 
poultry, bees. Then there are his fruit trees, dif- 
ferent varieties, requiring special care and attention, 
and special knowledge. There is, as I said before, 
not a trade or profession requiring such a widely di- 
versified knowledge as general farming. 

Our predecessors who, through ignorance, robbed 
the soil of its fertility, left us little — in these days of 
keen competition — but a legacy of unprofitable labor. 
We ought to profit by their mistakes, and find some 
way, if possible, to make our land more productive. 



2 Soiling. 

Any fool can rob the soil of its fertility, but it takes 
a wise man, a professional agriculturist, to win it 
back to productiveness. If we do not succeed in 
doing- this, we shall leave to our children a legacy 
which they will spurn, instead of one they could 
receive with rejoicing, and that one must be capable 
of supplying their increasing numbers and their in- 
creasing wants. 

Farming on an Exhausted Soil.* 

I regret to say that the history of agriculture in 
America is any but one to which we may point with 
pride. What, may I ask, has become of the many 
farmers throughout the New England States who 
once lived comfortabl}^, if not luxuriously? Why 
are their farms deserted, their houses unoccupied? 
We have not far to look for the answer — the fertility 
of the soil has been exhausted, sold in the markets 
of New York and Boston by the pound, by the bushel, 
and by the ton. Their owners, failing to find their 
toil longer remunerative, have gone West, many of 
them, where I presume they have gone on systemat- 
ically robbing the soil, leaving to their descendants 
a heritage of unremitting toil. Still more lament- 
able is the condition of thousands of farms in Vir- 
ginia and other parts of the sunny South. Here, 
but a few years ago, lived a people who boasted of 
their wealth, their refinement, their culture, and 
their chivalry. Why are their once beautiful fields 

* Extract from an address delivered by the author at Albany, 
N. Y., before the County Agricultural Society in 1S90. 



Our Soils 2 

now fenceless and deserted? The land remains, the 
climate remains, the slaves remain, but the owners 
are not. The fertility of the soil went before them ; 
they baled it with their cotton, barreled it with their 
sugar, until naught remains but the barren soil. 

A few years ago the term "out West " was synon- 
ymous with bounty and fertility. We were told that 
one had but to "tickle the soil with a hoe, and it 
laughed a harvest." All this has changed. Their 
average yield per acre during the last ten years has 
declined twenty-five per cent. 

Farming on Productive Soil. 

Happily, however, this state of things, with a prop- 
er knowledge of agriculture, is unnecessary. There 
is a way, not only to maintain the fertility of the soil, 
but to increase it. England has been under the plow 
for centuries, still her average yield of wheat has in- 
creased to over thirty-one bushels per acre, while the 
average yield in this country has steadily declined 
until it is only about thirteen bushels per acre. 
China, one of the oldest countries in the world has 
increased the agricultural resources of the empire 
to keep pace with the rapidly increasing population. 
It is a fact that the heathen Chinee knows better 
than we how to preserve and increase the fertility 
of the soil. If America would close her eastern 
gates to emigrants who come here, to rob our soil, 
and let a few Chinamen farmers in at the western 
gate, we might learn some valuable lessons in farm- 
ing. Fertility means prosperity. 



4 Soiling. 

There is not a fertile spot on the face of the earth 
but that is a prosperous one and a desirable one in 
which to live. 

The Condition of Farming at the Present Day. 

The problem that confronts the present-day farmer 
is how to compete with the foreigners who come to 
this country annually by the tens of thousands, and 
who, on their arrival, our Government sets up in 
the farming business, offering to each one hundred 
and sixty acres of land. The only alternative we 
have in competing with these Government farmers is 
to do one of two things. We must either get down 
to their level, and work as they work, our wives and 
children constituting our hired help on the farm 
and in the house, live as they live, half fed and half 
clothed, go without books and papers, without recre- 
ation for ourselves or an education for our children. 
That is one way, but even then we cannot hope to 
compete with them on farms that cost us a hundred 
dollars an acre, and on which we are taxed to sup- 
port all sorts of charitable institutions, to say noth- 
ing of (as in this State) building state capitols and 
digging canals to benefit the adopted children of our 
Government, while at the same time they have their 
farms given to them. 

Farming on Government Lands. 

A foreigner comes to this country with money 
enough to pay his fare to some of the Western 
States. Uncle Sam gives him a farm,, then he finds 



Our Soils. ^ 

plenty of men ready to take a mortgage on it for 
enough to enable him to purchase the necessary 
tools, and there you see him a full-fledged American 
farmer. It is, indeed, a most serious predicament in 
which the public land policy of our Government has 
placed the farmers of the Eastern States. They are 
not only made to sell their products at cost and less, 
but their lands have depreciated in value fifty to 
seventy-five per cent., until many farmers in the 
Eastern States have been driven to bankruptcy, all 
for the sake of keeping up that boastful, useless, 
wasteful practice by the Government " that Uncle 
Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm," and of 
setting up thousands of foreigners annually in the 
farming business until competition is so keen that 
there is nothing left the farmers in the older States 
but unremitting toil. Their sons and daughters are 
thereby driven from the farm, and their places are 
being filled by foreigners, until we are fast becom- 
ing reduced to the condition of the peasant farmer 
of the old world. Farmers they are not. They are, 
more properly speaking, a lot of land pirates. 

They have a good farm given them, and imme- 
diately they begin to live on its fertility like a lot of 
highwaymen. Have I overdrawn the picture? I 
wish you might say I had. If you think so, look 
about and see how many one hundred, one hundred 
and fifty, or two hundred acre farms there are in 
your county, where the hired man gets about all 
the yearly profits, while the owner, with a ten or 
twenty thousand dollar investment, and his wife as 



6 Soiling. 

well, work for their board and clothes. Farmers 
themselves are largely to blame for this state of 
things. They should demand through their repre- 
sentatives at Washington that the Government put 
a stop to the giving away any more of the public 
dom^ain, until there is a demand for it at $io or $15 
per acre. 

No other business men would put up with such an 
infringement. The United Workmen said prison 
labor must cease, because the State was setting up 
laborers in competition with them, which it had no 
right to do, and prison labor ceased. The United 
Workmen said to the United States Government, 
" Put a stop to the contract laborers coming to this 
coimtry to compete with us," and the law was 
passed. If an immigrant is engaged to come to this 
country to dig a sewer, the Government at Wash- 
ington sends him back to the country from which he 
came. The same United States Government says to 
the same immigrant and to every other foreigner, 
" You come over here, and Unde Sam will give you 
one hundred and sixty acres of land ; that is to say, 
will set you up in the farming business." 

" Come from any nation, 
Come from any way. 
Come along, come along, 
Don't be alarmed : 
For Uncle Sam is rich enough 
To give you all a farm." 

So goes the old song. When the country was 
new, this could be done without injury to any one. 



Our Soils. 7 

But that day has long since passed. These Govern- 
ment farmers have increased so rapidly that agricul- 
ture in the Eastern States has been reduced nearly 
to a level with immigrant farming. 

This, in short, is the present condition of agricul- 
ture in the Eastern States. There is left us but one 
alternative, either to live as the immigrant farmers 
live, work as they work, or to cheapen our produc- 
tion by making one acre produce what now comes 
from four or five. 

I offer you this solution : I bring you in this volume 
a ray of hope. Try soiling. 



CHAPTER II. 

OUR PLANTS. 

How TO Feed Them. 

Our plants, like our animals, live, feed, grow, and 
die. It is only by feeding them alike liberally that 
we can hope to make them produce bountifully. 

Until a person comes to consider his growing 
plants as if they were his growing animals, claiming 
his care and attention, and looking to him to supply 
them, largely, with the food they must consume, 
then, and not till then, is he in possession of the prin- 
ciples that constitute successful farming. At first 
glance it would seem that the above statement was 
so self-evident that there was little use of mention- 
ing it, but when we look about a little and notice 
the way that many farmers starve their growing 
plants, even when they do not starve their cattle, it 
shows that they have never looked at their growing 
plants in this light. 

What has this to do with soiling? It is the princi- 
pal thing, as a celebrated English general once said 
in reply to the War Department, which said to him : 
" General, it seems to the War Department that 
the thing that most concerned you in India was the 
growing of forage for bullocks. " "Yes, sir; that's 



Our Plants. 9 

the principal things in carrying on a successful war- 
fare in India or any other country. If we have the 
forage, we shall have the bullocks ; if we have the 
bullocks, we shall be able to support the men, and 
if our men are well supported, we shall have no 
trouble to conquer the enemy." That's the whole 
story. If we will give our greatest concern to our 
growing plants, we need not worry ourselves about 
the rest. The animals to eat it will come along 
easily enough. If you see it in that light, you will 
find, by the adoption of the soiling system, that you 
are able to provide an abundance of food for your 
growing plants in a sure and economical way, i.e.^ 
by the greater production of barnyard manure, 
plowing under green crops for manure, soiling your 
plants as well as your animals. But before we pro- 
ceed to discuss the value of barnyard, liquid and 
green manuring as compared with commercial fer- 
tilizer, let us first consider the comparative value of 
the ordinary grain and forage crops, both as a for- 
age (manure) for our plants and as feed for our ani- 
mals. This will help to explain some important 
questions in regard to producing the most economi- 
cal plant food and clinch several strong arguments 
in favor of soiling. 

"Good farming," says Lockhardt, "consists in 
taking large crops from the soil, while at the same 
time you leave the soil in better condition for suc- 
ceeding crops." This strikes me as being the best 
definition of what constitutes good farming I have 
ever seen. It is the very science of farming. 



10 Soiling. 

Good crops make good manure, good manure pro- 
duces good crops. 

The value of grain and forage crops for plant 
food consists in the amount of nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash that they contain, while the value 
of forage crops and grains for animal food depends 
chiefly upon the amount of albuminoids, carbo- 
hydrates and fat they contain. 

Animals, in the consumption of foods, take from 
them but a small proportion of their value for plant 
food, while the plants consume little or none of the 
elements that the animals require. Thus, if a ton of 
feed, say cotton-seed meal, should be plowed under 
as a fertilizer, as is often done in the Southern 
States, it would be of no more value to the land than 
if it had been first fed to the stock, providing none 
of its value as a plant food had been allowed to waste 
in the manure pile. Some plants or grains are very 
rich or valuable as plant food, while others are richer 
in animal food, and again others are valuable for both 
purposes. 

The following tables will furnish the reader some 
curious and interesting facts, and some information 
which will assist him, it is hoped, in making a most 
economical selection. 

The analysis from which the values of the differ- 
ent foods are estimated was taken from the work of 
Dr. Emil Wolff of the Royal Academy of Agricul- 
ture, Wurtemburg, Germany. I believe these ex- 
tended tables, as prepared by myself, were the 
first of the kind to appear in print in this coun- 



Our Plants. ii 

try. They represent the average results of numer- 
ous analyses, and are sufficiently accurate for all 
practical purposes. The original analysis repre- 
sented only the comparative proportions of differ- 
ent foods as given in loo and i,ooo lb. With these 
figures as a basis, I have estimated the number of 
parts or pounds found in one ton (2,000 lb.) and 
computed the animal food value per ton, estimating 
albuminoids at $4, carbohydrates at 80 cents, fat at 
$4 per hundred pounds. 

These estimated values are obtained from the 
average prices of the different grains in market, but 
as the prices vary in different localities and in dif- 
ferent seasons, they cannot be said to be absolutely 
correct at all times. But they may serve to show 
the relative values of the different kinds of feed and 
forage. For instance, if the value of any one article 
is too high or too low, then all the others are corre- 
spondingly so. 

In calculating the value of the different grains 
and forage crops as plant food, I have taken the 
market price of nitrogen a^ 15 cents, phosphoric 
acid at 6 cents, and potash at 5 cents per pound.* 

* These estimates were made for the first edition. At the 
present time, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash can be 
bought in certain forms for about one cent cheaper per pound. 



12 



Soiling. 



Grains. 



Field beans ... 

Field peas 

Tares (vetches) 
Indian corn . . . 

Wheat 

Rye 

Barley ........ 

Oats 

Buckwheat ... 



Pounds of 

Animal Food 

Per Ton. 



3 d 


•e-a 


.a (u 


rt >- 


<^ 


Offi 


510 


910 


448 


1,046 


550 


844 


200 


1,360 


260 


1,352 


220 


1,384 


190 


1,332 


240 


1,218 


180 


1,192 



40 
50 

54 
140 

30 
40 

50 
120 

50 



c 


Pounds 


•1^ 


OF Plant Food 


Per Ton. 








^•c 


Hri 


S:2 


t/i 




.ti <u 


•c " 




fo 


^ W 


o^< 



Oh 


$29.21 


81.6 


17.2 


26.2 


27.38 


71.6 


17.2 


19.6 


30.91 


88.0 


20.0 


16.2 


24.48 


32.0 


II. 8 


7-4 


21.51 


41.6 


15 a 


10.6 


21.41 


35-2 


16.8 


II. 2 


20.25 


32.0 


15.4 


9.0 


24.14 


39.4 


12.4 


8.8 


18.64 


28.8 


11.4 


5-4 






Ground Feed and 
Refuse. 



Cotton-seed meal 
Linseed meal. . . . 

Corn meal 

Malt sprouts 

Brewer's grains 

Wheat bran 

Rye bran 

Rape cake 



p 


OUNDS 


OF 




Animal F'ood 


w 


Per Ton. 


^H 




3 v 








, 






"rtCU 






fa 


fa 


660 


352 


324 


$42.66 


566 


826 


200 


37-24 


200 


1,360 


140 


24.48 


460 


894 


50 


27-55 


98 


222 


32 


6.97 


280 


1,000 


76 


22.24 ! 


290 


1,070 


70 


22.96 


566 


670 


180 


35-20 J 



Pounds 

OF Plant Food 

Per Ton. 



90.6 
32.0 
73-6 
15-6 
44-8 
46.4 
97.0 



o.-H 



56 2 
32.2 

II.8 

360 

8.2 

54-6 
68.6 
35-4 



CU 



29.2 
24.8 

7-4 

41.2 

i.o 

28.6 
38.6 
24.8 



Dry Forage. 
(Hay and Straw. ) 



Red clover 

Timothy 

Lucern 

Tares, cut in blossom 
Peas, cut in blossom. 

Orchard grass 

Wheat straw 

Rye straw 

Barley straw 

Oat straw . 

Pea straw 

Bean straw 

Cornstalks 



Pounds of 

Animal Food 

Per Ton. 



is 




<ii 


uffi 


268 


598 


194 


976 


394 


858 


284 


706 


286 


736 


232 


814, 


40 


604 


30 


540 


60 


656 


50 


764 


130 


704 


204 


730 


60 


720 



64 
60 

66 
50 
52 
54 
30 
26 
28 
40 
40 
20 






fa 



^18.06 

17.96 

25.26 

19. 00 

19.40 

17-95 

7-63 

6-56 

8.75 

9.71 

12.42 

14.80 



Pounds 

of Plant Food 

Per Ton. 



. 


SST3 


>- c 


0.= 


-t! oj 


.G U 


^ bC 


(!-<; 


39-4 


II. 2 


31.0 


14.4 


46.0 


II. 


45-4 


21.4 


45.8 


13.6 


31.0 


8.2 


9.6 


4.4 


8.0 


4.2 


12.8 


3.8 


IT. 2 


3-8 


20.8 


7.0 


32.6 


6.4 


9.6 


10.6 



36.6 
40.8 

30.6 

56-6 

46.4 

26 4 
12.6 
15-6 
18.8 
17.8 
20.2 
37-0 
19.2 



Our Plants. 



13 



Green Fodder. 



Grass 

Clover (red) . . . 

Lucern 

Tares (vetches) . 

Peas 

Oats 

Rye 

Corn 

Hungarian millet 

Sorghum 

Cabbage , 

Rape (leaves) . . . . 



Roots, Etc. 



Pounds 


of 


d 


Pounds 


Animai, Food 
Per Ton. 



fa 


OF Plant Food 
Per Ton, 














3 c 


OK 


fa 


. 
.t! V 
'4. M 


o3 




60 


258 


16 


$5-io 


10.8 


3-0 


9.2 


66 


154 


14 


4-43 


10.2 


8.8 


2.8 


90 


156 


12 


5-32 


14.4 


3-2 


9.6 


62 


152 


12 


4.22 


II. 2 


4.6 


12.2 


64 


164 


12 


4-25 


10.2 


10.2 


3-0 


46 
66 
22 


170 
298 
218 


10 
18 
10 


4.14 

5-74 
3.02 


7-4 

10.6 

.3.8 


3-4 
4.8 
2.6 


15.0 

12.6 

8.6 


118 
50 


300 
306 


30 
28 


8.32 
5.56 


20.0 
8.0 


2.5 

1.6 


17.0 
7.2 


30 


126 


8 


2.52 








400 


950 


40 


25.20 


Q.2 


2.8 


8.0 



Potatoes . . . 
Turnips . . . 
Field beets. 
Sugar beets 
Carrots . . . . 
Pumpkins. . 



"1 , 

go, 

> 3 

a 

$^.64 
2.50 
3.38 
2.90 
2.56 
2.21 
2.81 
1.20 
4.78 
1-95 

2.26 



Pounds of 

Animal Food 

Per Ton. 


Value as 
Feed Per Ton. 


Pounds 

of Plant Food 

Per Ton. 


i «■ 

< £ 




fa 

6 
12 

2 

4 
2 


. 







40 

64 
22 
20 
30 
26 


420 

340 
182 
308 
216 
56 


$5.20 

5-74 
2.31 

3-43 
3.08 
1.56 


6.8 
3-6 

3-2 

4-4 


3-8 
1,8 

1.6 
2.0 


II. 4 

6.6 

7.8 
5-6 






$1.96 
1.05 

I. or 
1. 18 



Barn-yard Manure. 



The manure heap is the farmers' bank. His 
drafts will invariably be honored at any banking 
house in proportion to the amounts of the deposits 
in his compost pile. But it is a mistaken notion to 
think that manure of one kind is as good as another 
kind of similar bulk. The foregoing table shows 
that a ton of clover hay contains $9.75 worth of 
plant food., a ton of cornmeal only $2.60, while 



14 Soiling. 

the same weight of cotton - seed meal is worth 
$23. Clover hay is worth more than timothy, 
both as a food for animals and plants. The particu- 
lar value of timothy hay for horses is that it con- 
tains a larger percentage of carbohydrates (muscle- 
forming food), and is, therefore, better for animals 
requiring muscular exercise than clover which con- 
tains more fat. I wish to call your attention to 
green lucern, oats, and peas cut in blossom. Also 
rye, and especially rape, of which I shall have con- 
siderable to say under the head of crops for soiling 
sheep. 

There are many interesting facts to be found in 
the tables, which I have not space to enlarge upon, 
but which I cannot too strongly recommend the 
reader (not already familiar with the facts they set 
forth) to study carefully. By so doing a person 
may make his selections of feeds with economy. 
For instance, he might well afford to sell corn and 
buy oil meal, cotton-seed meal or wheat bran. 

Personally I have great dislike to feeding corn- 
meal to any degree of excess, even to hogs. Fed to 
dairy cows, I believe, it has done a great deal to 
ruin what might otherwise have been a good dairy 
animal by making it a beefer. By feeding it to 
dairy cows before their calf is born, the calf is 
brought into the world with a greater tendency to 
fatten than its mother had. And afterward, when 
they reach their maturity, it helps them along in the 
same direction toward completing their ruin as high- 
class dairy cattle, while in beefers it makes tallow 



Our Plants. 15 

instead of meat, and in the hog, grease instead of 
pork. Oil cake, old process, can usually be bought 
for $5 per ton more than the price of corn. It is 
worth $13 a ton more as a food for animals, and $14 
per ton more for manure. Cotton-seed meal shows 
a still greater difference in value, and is worth about 
three times as much both as animal and as plant 
food. 

No one can be found, except perhaps commercial 
fertilizer agents, but will admit that no commercial 
fertilizer was ever made that takes the place in the 
soil of barnyard manure. Says Prof. W. A. At- 
water : " Stable manure contains all the ingredients 
of plant food. It is a complete fertilizer. Nor is 
that all. It improves the texture of the soil; it 
tends to regulate the supply of moisture, and it 
helps to set free the stores of inherent plant food 
which every soil contains." That is the whole story 
in a nutshell. And if every farmer would commit 
it to memory, and do his utmost to increase its 
manufacture on his own farm, it would save not 
thousands biit millions of dollars that are now yearly 
spent in the purchase of artificial fertilizers. A 
ton of oil cake fed and made into manure is worth 
as a manure, according to the table above, $20.40. 
Take the same amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 
and potash in a ton of commercial fertilizer, and it 
cannot be bought for less than about $30 per ton. 
In other words, a ton of oil meal is worth as much, 
ton for ton, as a fertilizer as any commercial brand 
that can be bought for $30. That amount of money 



i6 



Soiling. 



would buy at least two tons of bran. So I might 
go on through the whole list of farm grains and 
by-products, and set them up beside commercial 
fertilizers, and in point of economy it makes a very 
bad showing for the latter, as will be seen by the 
following table : 



Clover hay 

Oil cake 

Wheat bran 

Cotton-seed meal 

Fertilizer A 

Fertilizer B 

Fertilizer C 



Pounds 


OF Plant Food 




Per Ton. | 


«§ 




1 










Nitro- 


Phos. 
Acid. 


Potash. 


Oh 


gen. 






39-4 


II. 2 


36.6 


$9-78 


90.6 


32.2 


24.8 


20.40 


44.8 


54-6 


28 6 


12.28 


98.0 


56.2 


29.2 


23.00 


45-0 


200.0 


90.0 


23-25 


65.0 


200.0 


.33 


25-55 


70 


250.0 


40.0 


31.00 



c 

*J O 
tr,r~ 



^lO.OO 

28.00 
15.00 
24.00 
30.00 
32 00 

37.00 



The amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and 
potash given in commercial fertilizers is estimated 
by the analysis given on the sacks. The cost per 
ton in the last column is the price the fertilizers are 
sold at. I have given to the nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash found in the fertilizers the same 
values as in the hay and oil meal. The real value 
of the hay and oil meal compared with commercial 
fertilizers in the above analysis is seen at a glance. 
It makes the strongest possible argument to the econ- 
omy of barnyard manure. We still have in the oil 
meal and the clover hay its value as an animal food : 
besides, as Professor Atwater says, " barnyard ma- 
nure is a perfect fertilizer," which few, if any, com- 
mercial fertilizers ever claim to be. Every farmer 



Our Plants. 



17 



admits, no doubt, that it is desirable to get as much 
barnyard manure as possible, but he says that he 
does not know how he can possibly keep more stock 
on his land, which will not support what he already 
has as they ought to be supported. How then is he 
to keep any more? We shall see later on that it is 
a very simple trick. 

Green Crops for Manure. 

This chapter might properly be called " Soiling 
Our Plants," And it is to help answer the question, 
How enrich our farm in a sure and economical 
way? It may not be convenient for some of my 
readers, in adopting soiling with a view of obtaining 
a greater amount of barnyard manure, to be able to 
buy the additional number of animals that may be 
supported by such a system of feeding. He may 
also be, like the author, opposed, even if he had the 
means, to buying commercial fertilizers. Not only 
that, but one of the first lessons taught the person 
who attempts to soil is the importance of having 
rich soil on which to grow his soiling crops. If he 
cannot buy the cattle to make the manure, or if he 
cannot buy the manure, he can at least grow it, and 
even after he has the cattle bought, he will always 
find it greatly to his advantage to have on hand as 
much green manure as possible, to plow under every 
year. Although this subject perhaps belongs further 
on under the management of soiling crops, I have 
decided to put it in here with the question of man- 
ures in general, especially as it fits in very well after 



1 8 Soiling. 

what has already been said in regard to barnyard 
manures, etc. 

"Ordinary barnyard manure," says Mr. Harlan in 
his most excellent work on " Farming with Green 
Manure," "contains ten pounds of nitrogen, five 
pounds of phosphoric acid, and twelve and one-half 
pounds of potash." By referring to the above table, 
we notice that a ton of green rye is worth just about 
as much. I have seen some wonderful results in the 
improvement of land by plowing under a crop of rye. 
I once rented a piece of land — seven acres — adjoin- 
ing my farm, that had for a great many years been 
used in connection with the Methodist parsonage of 
the place. Every minister that came took from it 
all that he could during his three years or less, so 
that finally it would hardly grow mulleins. The 
first season, it was in grass. We drew the whole 
crop to the barn in two loads and a half, about as 
many tons. We plowed it up and sowed it to rye, 
plowed the rye under the next spring and sowed it 
to Hungarian millet ; plowed that under and sowed 
it to wheat, and harvested thirty and one-fourth 
bushels per acre the next season, and cut from it the 
following 5^ear at least ten tons of hay. No other 
fertilizer was used. • I have also had equally won- 
derful results with following rye with oats and peas, 
to be plowed under for wheat, instead of summer 
fallowing. 

Land in a good state of cultivation will produce 
from five to eight tons of green rye per acre. A ton 
of green rye contains nearly ^3 worth of plant 



Our Plants. 1 9 

food, and which amount of fertilizing- material will 
cost nearly double that price in the form of com- 
mercial fertilizer. 

Dr. Hamlin says: "When we compare it (rye) 
with barnyard manure, its greatest value as a green 
dressing becomes apparent. I have seen fifteen 
tons per acre growing on the 8th of May, and this 
was ascertained by careful measurement. " 

This makes indeed a very cheap fertilizer, viz. : 
seed, $2, and interest on the value of the land 
from October until May (eight months), $4, or a 
total cost of only f6 for fifteen tons of green 
manure. The same amount of barnyard manure 
could not be bought, drawn to the field, and spread 
for less than $20. The great advantage of rye is 
that it occupies the ground late in the fall and early 
in the spring, so that little time is lost by using it 
to plow under, but of this point I will speak later 
under the subject of soiling crops. Oats and peas 
make one of the very best green crops for manure. 

Hungarian millet grows quickly, and is without 
doubt one of the very best quick-growing green 
manure crops for the Northern States. It is worth, 
green, to plow under, $4.78 per ton. Twelve to fif- 
teen tons to the acre is a fair crop on good soil. 

The value of clover as a crop to turn under is well 
known, but a crop of millet is quite as good, and can 
be grown quicker and at less expense. 

The great economical feature of green manuring 
is that it is delivered on the spot, evenly spread, at 
such a trifling cost. Sixty pounds of seed should 



20 Soiling. 

produce twelve tons of green millet, containing near- 
ly $60 worth of manure, and that is not at com- 
mercial fertilizer prices either. 

Cow peas are largely grown in the Southern States 
to reclaim the worn-out tobacco and cotton soils, and 
its value for this purpose is incalculable. My per- 
sonal experience with it has been limited to two or 
three trials. The following interesting information 
taken from the United States Bulletin, No. 16, shows 
us why the cow pea and other leguminous plants like 
clover, etc., are particularly adapted to plowing un- 
der for green manure (by E. W. Allen) : 

" Green manuring, or plowing under green crops 
raised for the purpose, is one of the oldest means for 
improving the fertility of the soil. It was advo- 
cated by Roman writers more than two thousand 
years ago. Its advantages are many. It furnishes 
the surface soil with a supply of fertilizing materials, 
increases the humus and improves the physical quali- 
ties and tilth of the soil. As a humus former, green 
manure stands next to barnyard manure. Green 
manuring may be used to take the place of more ex- 
pensive fertilizers. It is in this latter use that it 
finds its widest application." In attempting to ex- 
plain how the fertility of the soil is maintained by 
green manuring, when the crops plowed under re- 
turn to the soil only what they exhausted from the 
soil to produce their growth, the author of the bul- 
letin, Mr. E. W. Allen, says: " The question has been 
solved by one of the most important discoveries yet 
made in agricultural science. It has been found 



Our Plants* 21 

that certain plants can feed upon the' nitrogen in 
the atmosphere and store it up in their tissues. As 
they grow they take their phosphoric acid and pot- 
ash from the soil. It is believed that plants are en- 
abled to get this nitrogen through the activity of the 
lower forms of life, bacteria or microbes. They 
produce or cause to be produced little nodules or 
tubercles on the roots. Through these tubercles 
the plants get their atmospheric nitrogen. 

" These discoveries throw a new light on green 
manuring and on plants best adapted for that pur- 
pose. They recommend it more highly than ever 
before as a soil renovator and a cheap means of 
maintaining the fertility. 

" It will thus be seen that it is possible to manure 
the soil with nitrogen of the air, which is free and 
inexhaustible, and thus save buying this most ex- 
pensive element, which as stated above, costs from 
15 to 20 cents per pound, while potash and phos- 
phoric acid cost only 5 to 7 cents and even less." 

Speaking of the cow pea as a fertilizer, the same 
author says : " It responds readily to the application 
of potash and phosphates. An acre of cow peas at 
the Louisiana Station yielded 3,970.38 pounds of 
organic matter, containing 64.95 pounds of nitrogen, 
20.39 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 110.56 pounds 
of potash." 



22 



Soiling. 



Liquid Manure. 

There is perhaps no one thing in farm economy 
in the United States where there is a greater waste 
than in regard to this most valuable fertilizer. 

Man)^ farmers have brooks running through their 
barnyards, or have them situated on side hills, 
washed by rains and water from the roofs of their 
barns. 

The following table shows the number of pounds 
of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash found in a 
ton of fresh dung and urine, and their comparative 
values : 





Dung. 


Urine. 




Nitro- 
gen. 


Phos. 
Acid. 


Pot- 
ash. 


Value. 


Nitro- 
gen. 


Phos. 
Acid. 


Pot- 
ash. 


Value. 


Sheep 


11. o 

8.8 
5.8 

12. 


6.2 

7.0 

3 4 
8.2 


3-0 
7.0 
2.0 

5-2 


$2.56 
2.30 
1-37 
2-93 


39-0 , 
31.0 
11.6 
8.6 


, 0.2 
1.4 


45-2 

30.0 

9.8 

16.6 


$9.61 
7.40 
2.71 
2.44 


Horse 

Cow 

Swine 





The analysis from which the above table is com- 
puted is also from Professor Wolff, to which I have 
added the value as estimated in the previous tables. 
The methods used to save liquid manure in this 
country, although rarely ever practised, are by ab- 
sorbents behind the stock in stalls, and the housing 
of manure under some kind of shed or basement. My 
own plan has been to use land plaster freely in the 
gutters behind the stock, the manure carted to the 
fields and spread as fast as made during the winter, 



Our Plants. 



23 



or spread about tinder the basement and str^w stack 
which stands on posts, permitting the stock to run 
under it, the yard being deeper under the stack 
than elsewhere, with eaves-troughs so arranged that 
all water from the roofs was carried out of the yard. 

In foreign countries, and especially on the islands 
of Jersey and Guernsey, every farmer has a liquid 
manure cistern, and over or near it all the manure 
of the stable is daily piled or composted. The drain 
from the pile and the wash of the yard is collected 
in this cistern, and from there pumped into carts 
for this purpose, and distributed usually on the 
meadows. The Jersey and Guernsey farmers are 
the best agriculturists in the world, and they would 
as soon think of going without a stable for their cat- 
tle as without a liquid manure cistern. I think we 
make a great. mistake in this country in not having 
such cisterns. 

In applying liquid manure, it is always greatly 
diluted by allowing the eaves of the barn to run in 
the same cistern, or water is otherwise added. 
Where they obtain several cuttings of lucern for 
instance, a dressing of liquid manure is put on after 
each cutting, and the results are something magical. 
A man with one horse cart, it is claimed, can pump 
and deliver to the field, if within a quarter of a mile 
of the barn, dressing for an acre. I doubt if one 
man could deliver and spread more than one-half of 
that amount of solid manure in a day. Where wind- 
mills are used, they may be used to do the pumping, 
having two carts, one being pumped full while the 



24 Soiling. 

other is being emptied. Should the cart be filled 
before the drivers return, and run over, it runs back 
into the well. I do not think of any one thing in 
farm economy where there is a greater chance for 
saving than in this one question of liquid manure. 
I believe it will pay a better return on the invest- 
ment than any one thing that can be recommended. 

The German proprietor of eight acres, referred to 
by James Wilson, in "Ten Acres Enough," who 
transformed the neglected and exhausted soil into a 
garden of immense productiveness and great profit, 
started with a capital of $3 and four pigs. The 
manure of this small number of stock was collected 
in a buried hogshead, there reduced to liquid man- 
ure, and applied by means of a wheelbarrow. The 
results from this small beginning were so remark- 
able that he soon added more stock, sinking a brick 
cistern in the barnyard, into which the liquid man- 
ure from the cow and two horses was conducted, to- 
gether with the wash from the pig pen and yard. 
The manure heap, always under cover, was 
thoroughly saturated by means of a pump in the cis- 
tern, and by means of a hogshead on wheels the 
liquid was distributed over the ground. 

The reason why liquid manure cisterns are not 
common in this country is simply fashion. I believe 
it is not too much to say that we waste as much 
every year by not securing the liquid manure as we 
pay for cpmrnercial fertilizers to take its place, 



Our Plants. 25 

Saving Manure (Plaster). 

We are told that " during the fermenting process 
in the manure heap, carbon dioxide gas is given off, 
and likewise ammonia, simultaneously with the de- 
composition of the materials constituting the heap. 
These two substances will at once combine to form 
carbonate of ammonia, which is very volatile. Now, 
when land plaster is added, the carbon dioxide con- 
tained in the carbon of ammonia will unite with the 
lime composing the plaster, forming carbonate of 
lime : and the sulphuric acid which was previously 
combined with the lime in the plaster will now be 
set free, and will at once unite with the ammonia 
contained in the carbonate to form sulphate of am- 
monia, which will not volatilize, as was the case 
with the carbonate." 

Commercial Fertilizer. 

OvCr alphabet is composed of twenty-six letters or 
characters, which we arrange so as to express thou- 
sands of words. The botanical alphabet is com- 
posed of fifteen letters or elements, which, being put 
together in various forms, produce every known 
plant. 

Most of our artificial manures are special ferti- 
lizers and supply the soil with only part of the plant 
food required. Let us suppose, for example, that we 
wish a certain field to produce a crop of wheat, and 
that in prder to grow that crop it wiU require five of 



26 Soiling. 

the fifteen elements that constitute the vegetable al- 
phabet; to spell wheat, let us represent these five 
elements by five letters of our alphabet, as W, H, 
E, A, T. 

If any one of these letters or the elements which 
they represent are missing in the soil, the combina- 
tion is incomplete, nature fails to spell the word, and 
our crop is a failure. 

How is a farmer to know which one of the letters 
is missing? By analyzing the soil. Yes, but how 
many farmers are in a position to do this? Besides, 
it must be done not only with each succeeding crop, 
but in different fields for the same crop. You say 
this is impossible. Certainly it is. Even if it were 
possible, the analysis of a soil is little or no criterion 
as to its ability to produce a crop. It may show by 
analysis that a certain soil is abundantly supplied 
with all the elements necessary to produce a crop of 
wheat, and still the land be unable to grow wheat, 
because, although the soil contains all the elements, 
one or more of them (though in great quantities) 
may be in an insoluble state, so that they are not 
available to the plants. Therefore, even if analyz- 
ing the soil were practicable, it does not tell what 
we want to know. 

The application of complete fertilizers is a step in 
advance, because if the soil is supplied with all the 
elements necessary to produce a crop, one is more 
certain that the missing or deficient letter or ele- 
ment will be supplied. 

We will say in the case of growing a crop of wheat 



Our Plants. 



27 



that all the letters or elements are present and avails 
able except T, and that that letter represents potash 
which can be bought in various forms for about 4 
cents a pound. The soil being already abundant in 
all other elements, the application of a complete fer- 
tilizer is a most extravagant practice. You pay $30 
to $40 per ton for a high-class complete fertilizer. 
Apply it to the land in this case, and all the value 
it has is the potash it contains, worth $4. Pay- 
^^g" $35 ^ ton to get $4 worth of fertilizer is a rather 
expensive luxury, to say the least. The nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid are practically wasted, because the 
soil has an abundance of these two elements already. 

Thus it often occurs that the application of a little 
lime or land plaster, salt or wood ashes, produces 
equally as good results side by side with fertilizer 
costing $60 per ton. It is not because, as some 
farmers suppose, that commercial fertilizers are 
worthless, but because the soil already possesses all 
the elements contained in the fertilizer except some 
simple one that a much cheaper element can supply. 

I do not condemn commercial fertilizers, but they 
are too expensive. I have experimented with them 
several times, and have never but once or twice ob- 
tained sufficient additional returns to justify the 
outlay. I look at them as too much of a lottery, too 
much guesswork. In a cold, backward season, I 
have had good results ; in a hot, dry season, a posi- 
tive damage. 

If I knew just what each of my fields was deficient 
in, and could supply it without buying a lot of other 



28 Soiling. 

elements of which my soil has already an abundance, 
it would be different. But I do not know that, and 
have no way of finding it out with any degree of 
certainty. Therefore I shun the purchase ol com- 
mercial fertilizers, and put my faith in barnyard 
manure, which I know, as Professor Atwater says, 
is a complete fertilizer, and I believe him when he 
adds, as already quoted : " It improves the texture of 
the soil, it tends to regulate the supply of moisture, 
it helps to set free the stores of inherent plant food 
which every soil contains." 

Next to barnyard manure in point of economy 
is green manuring, especially when the former is 
scarce and must be hauled to any great distance. 
Commercial fertilizers are too expensive for their 
manurial value, as compared with grain and forage 
crops plowed under or fed to stock. 

You may take the analysis of any brand of ferti- 
lizer selling at $30, go through the table of compara- 
tive values, and pick out a grain or a forage con- 
taining as high a percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash, that you can buy in the markets 
for $15 to $20, or which you could grow for less than 
a quarter of that sum: two tons of clover hay, for 
instance, that can be bought for, say, $10 per ton, 
and grown for less than half of that amount, contain 
nearly as much plant food as a ton of commercial 
fertilizer that will cost $30. 

If a ton of fertilizer that contains 45 pounds of 
nitrogen, 200 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 90 
pounds of potash (which is about the average anal- 



Our Plants. 29 

ysis) is worth $30 (which is about the average price 
of fertilizers of that grade), then a ton of clover hay- 
is worth nearly $15, a ton of wheat bran about $16, 
a ton of oil cake $30, while a ton of cotton-seed meal 
contains as much plant food, ton for ton, as a $30 
fertilizer, and can be bought for $6 per ton less. 
That is their value, or what you would have to pay 
for the same amount of plant food if bought in the 
form of commercial fertilizers, to say nothing about 
the value of the grains and forage crops as a food 
for stock. Say nothing about the increased value of 
plant food as supplied in barnyard manure above 
any form of commercial fertilizer. Put it the other 
way about. 

If a ton of clover hay contains plant food to the 
value of $9.78, wheat bran $12.28, oil cake $20.40, 
cotton-seed meal $23, then a ton of commercial 
fertilizer that sells for $30 is worth only about $23; 
a ton of fertilizer costing $37, about $30. 

If you say that I have put the value of commer- 
cial fertilizer too low, then all values set down in 
the tables are too low. If, on the other hand, you 
say that the forage and feed have been given too 
high a value as manure, then commercial fertilizers 
have also been given too high a value. They are 
both figured on the same basis. 

Selling grain to buy fertilizer seems to me such 
an extravagant way. 

When we pay $30 for a ton of commercial fertilizer, 
the money goes off the farm. When we grow an equal 
amount of plant food and retain it on the farm, we 



30 Soiling. 

double its value. Nothing has gone off. We have, 
on the other hand, created or made that much 
money. 

The amount spent in this State (New York) yearly 
for commercial fertilizers is over $6,000,000, the in- 
terest on which would pay for the extra labor of 
soiling every cow in the State, or building a liquid 
manure cistern on every farm, the saving of which 
would perhaps equal tlie amount paid for commer- 
cial fertilizers. To the farmer who would enrich his 
farm in a sure and economical way, and to the farmer 
who puts his faith in barnyard manure and would 
attain the greatest possible amount at the least pos- 
sible cost, the soiling system, as we shall presently 
show, affords just those conditions and advantages. 

Oil Cake and Cotton-seed Meal. 

Before closing this chapter on manures, I wish to 
call the reader's attention to a by-product, that in 
this country at least is in no way appreciated. I refer 
to oil cake. 

You will notice by the foregoing tables that oil 
cake is worth $37.24 as a food, and $20.40 as a ferti- 
lizer, while corn meal is only worth $24.48 as a 
food, and $7.16 as a fertilizer. In other words, it 
will take a ton and a half of corn to equal the feed- 
ing value of a ton of oil meal, and three tons of corn 
meal to equal the oil meal as a fertilizer. There is 
a small percentage of plant food lost in the con- 
sumption of food by cattle. Its combined value 



Our Plants. 



31 



per ton as a food and fertilizer is, therefore, oil meal 
$57.64, corn meal $31.64, a difference of $26 a ton 
in favor of oil meal. The English farmer who 
knows and appreciates the value of oil cake is buy- 
ing- ninety per cent, of the total that is manufactured 
in this country, paying freight on it to our seaboard, 
and then across the Atlantic and into the interior. 
Thousands of tons per month leave this country for 
foreign ports. 

This is no speculation on my part ; oil cake or oil 
meal is one of the very best of foods. Why it is so 
slow in finding favor with American farmers, I can- 
not say. As a food for fattening sheep or beef, corn 
meal is no comparison. It produces the finest 
flavored mutton, the tenderest beef with the great- 
est amount of lean in proportion to the amount of fat, 
and it makes meat instead of grease. A field of 
turnips fed off to sheep with a ration of oil cake en- 
riches the land for a whole rotation of crops. It 
cannot obtain much from the roots, for they are 
ninety per cent, water to start with. Any one who 
has ever tasted English oil-cake-fed mutton will 
agree with me that it is as much superior to corn- 
fed mutton as is possible to imagine. 

Oil cake may seem expensive at $28 to $30 per 
ton, but it is the cheapest fertilizer you can buy. 
Cotton-seed meal is another by-product, although it 
is not to be compared with oil cake as a food, be- 
cause it is not relished as well by the stock, and if 
fed in too large quantities sometimes produces in- 
jurious effects. However, it is a good wholesome 



3 2 Soiling. 

feed, and as a fertilizer none can compare with it. 
It should be fed sparingly, but nevertheless should 
be used on every farm. Sell corn and buy oil meal 
or oil cake, and you will make a good bargain every 
time. 



CHAPTER III. 

OUR ANIMALS. 

How TO Feed Them Economically. 

Now that we have considered our soil and its fertil- 
ity, our plants, and how to feed them economically, 
we will have a look at our animals. Then we shall 
be better able to understand and appreciate the ad- 
vantages of soiling. These are some of the princi- 
pal lessons that the soiling system teaches. These 
lessons were taught me by a force of circumstances 
against which I fought desperately, and were 
learned from the end backward. I have, therefore, 
in this plea for soiling, reversed the order with the 
hope of leading the reader up to the subject from 
the foundation. 

As the quantity and quality of the forage depends 
upon the fertility of the soil, in like manner does 
the condition of our farm stock depend upon the 
quantity and quality of the food which the soil pro- 
duces. 

The Cow as a Machine. 

A cow is but a machine for the production of beef, 
milk, cheese, or butter. Sheep are but factories on 
a small scale, for the production of wool or mutton. 
The horse is but an engine for motive power, either 
draught or speed. 
3 



34 Soiling. 

When we come to consider our plants as depend- 
ing upon us, like our animals, for their food supply: 
when we come to consider our animals as so many 
machines or factories, and ourselves as the proprie- 
tors of so many mills, and as truly a manufacturer 
as the man who runs a cotton or grist mill: when 
we consider that all these mills are dependent upon 
the fertility of the soil, we have mastered the funda- 
mental principles of farming. Whether we require 
of our animals beef, milk, butter, cheese, wool, mut- 
ton, or motive power, the raw material from which 
these things are produced is simply the food these 
animals consume, and, as in any other mill or fac- 
tory, the profit realized by the owner is what these 
animals can be induced to consume beyond the 
amount required to sustain life, and heat the blood, 
and supply waste. 

An engine requires, say, ten pounds of coal per 
hour to produce power enough to sustain itself in 
motion. The profit to the owner will be found in 
the amount of coal it can be made to consume in 
excess of the ten pounds to a point where the con- 
sumption of coal cannot be utilized in the engine. 
Repeated experiments at home and abroad have 
demonstrated that it takes two per cent, of the live 
weight of cattle or sheep per day to live. A cow, 
for instance, weighing i,ooo pounds requires twenty 
pounds of hay or its equivalent to heat the blood 
and supply the waste. The profit or economy in 
feeding that cow will be, therefore, as in the case of 
the steam engine, found in the amount she is able 



Our Animals. 



35 



to digest and assimilate above the twenty pounds 
she must consume to propel herself. Of course, 
cattle, sheep, and horses, like the engine, have a 
limit beyond which it is a waste of material, to say 
nothing of the injurious effects and risk to the ma- 
chinery. Fuel fed to an engine already blowing off 
steam might better have been consumed in a bonfire. 
Forage in excess of what an animal can digest and 
assimilate might better go into the dung-hill direct. 

The art, and science, and economy of feeding, 
therefore, is to feed up to an animal's fullest capac- 
ity. 

This seems like a very simple question, and one 
that should be so self-evident that it requires no 
mention, but when we look about and see the thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of farmers whose policy 
seems to be to see how little they can feed, instead 
of how much, one is reminded that it is a point that 
is seldom practised. Just here lies the great advan- 
tage of the soiling system. It provides, as we shall 
presently show, an abundance of rich succulent 
food, so that a cow can feed up to her full capacity 
every day of the year. 

When Insufficiently Fed. 

It is not only absolutely necessary, in order to feed 
a cow economically, which is another name for feed- 
ing abundantly, that she should be fed up to her 
fullest capacity, but she must begin there and keep 
there. If she is not started there, it is not only 
difficult but more expensive to get her there. She 



36 Soiling. 

should not only have all the raw material she can 
consume and digest, but she must expend the least 
amount of muscular labor to acquire it consistent 
with health. We shall notice this point further un- 
der "Objections to Soiling." 

When animals begin the season in good flesh, it 
must be maintained by abundance of food. Failing 
to supply it, either one of two things happens. 
They either stop short in their product, or draw on 
the stored energies of the system, which are, 'as R. 
S. Thomson says in " Science of Farming," "reab- 
sorbed into the blood and burned in the place of 
food. If the deficiency of food continues, the mus- 
cular substances will also be attacked and absorbed. 
This process will continue until the animal can no 
longer obtain from its tissues material to produce by 
its combustion sufficient heat and energy to maintain 
the vital processes, and the animal dies." Another 
great difficulty in the pasturing system is, the ani- 
mals, cows in milk especially, begin to draw on their 
stored materials long before it is usually noticed. 
They go on giving a good flow of milk on pasture 
which is insufficient to sustain them, until the first 
thing the owner knows his cow is a skeleton, and to 
get her back again will require the cost of all she 
has hitherto produced. Getting a cow up into con- 
dition which has once been lost, while she is milk- 
ing, is a very long, stern chase, and a very expen- 
sive undertaking, as any one knows who has tried 
it. Better dry her off and begin again next year, 
and not only have her up at the beginning, but keep 



Our Animals. 37 

her up through the year. In order to accomplish 
this at the least possible expense, the soiling system, 
which provides an abundance of rich, succulent food 
the year round, will be found to meet every require- 
ment. 

In feeding farm stock, it is the liberal hand that 
maketh rich. Withholding will not enrich nor giv- 
ing impoverish. With this hypothesis, the soiling 
system is in perfect harmony. 

Looking at a cow as a machine, and a sheep as a 
wool factory, we see the importance of not only 
feeding liberally, if we would be economical, but of 
providing the animals with food so that they are put 
to the least wear and tear to obtain it. The food 
which is consumed by a cow to replace and replen- 
ish the wasted tissues caused by laboring all day to 
collect her food, is by the soiling system put to a prac- 
tical advantage and a profitable one as well. I shall 
be able to illustrate this point more fully further 
on under the chapter devoted to soiling sheep. 

The rearing of calves for dairy purposes is a sub- 
ject to which I have given much attention, and al- 
though I cannot enter into the details or give any- 
thing like a complete treatise on that subject here, I 
may say that for supplying growing calves with an 
abundance of rich, succulent forage at a time of life 
when they require the highest development of those 
organs which constitute the machinery of a dairy 
cow, there is no system of feeding to accomplish 
this end like a well-conducted feeding of green for- 
age to them in their stalls. 



CHAPTER IV. 
SOILING. 

My First Lesson in Agriculture. 

In 1874 I found myself in possession of an old farm 
in Wayne County ; it seemed as if I had secured a 
prize. I had lived on this farm until I was ten or 
twelve years of age, and after that spent most of my 
school vacations upon it. This was in the sixties, 
when agriculture was booming and such land was 
worth $150 per acre. In those days, this particular 
farm enjoyed the reputation of being one of the very 
best in the county. 

After taking possession of the farm some ten or 
twelve years later, I was greatly surprised at the 
change that had taken place, not only in the general 
run-down appearance of the place (which was not 
to be wondered at on a farm that had been worked 
on shares for fifty years), but in the matter of the 
farm's ability to produce. 

I discovered that the number of cattle that it once 
maintained in such prime condition had been re- 
duced by half, and that the flock of sheep which was 
once the pride of the former owner had disappeared 
entirely. My disappointment reached its climax, 
however, when my first wheat crop from a field 



Soiling. 39 

considered one of the best on the farm was a failure. 
As a lad I had driven the old Wood and Manny 
reaper in this same field in grain so heavy that I 
was often obliged to stop the machine to enable the 
man who " sat standing " on the platform to fork it 
off, as it came on the table faster than he was able 
to dispose of it, and at the rate of about forty 
bushels per acre. Of course, I expected, from my 
former knowledge of the farm, to get good crops 
from all of the fields, and from this particular field 
something extra. Imagine my surprise and disap- 
pointment when it produced but fifteen bushels of 
wheat per acre, and wheat of inferior quality at 
that. This revelation was more than discouraging. 
Like most people, I have met with many disap- 
pointments and much heavier losses since then, 
seen fondest hopes and most substantial looking air 
castles fade away like mist, but I was young then, 
just past my teens, and I took this disappointment 
very much to heart. Such a wreckage as seemed 
to fall about me that day, I have never since experi- 
enced. The situation figured out with the following 
result : 

Statement Showing the Cost and the Profit and Loss of 
Growing Fifteen and Forty Bushels of Wheat Per 
Acre. 

Fifteen Bushels. Forty Bushels. 

Dr. Cr. Dr. Cr. 

To fitting the ground $5.00 $5.00 

To two bushels seed at $1.10 per 

bushel 2. 20 2. 20 

To interest at seven per cent on one 

acre 8.75 8.75 



46 Soiling. 



Fifteen Bushels. Forty Bushels. 

Dr. Cr. Dr. Cr, 

To harvesting and drawing to barn . 1.75 2.00 

To threshing, etc. , at six cents per 

bushel go 2.40 

To marketing, one and one-half cents 

per bushel 22 .60 

By cash for wheat at $1. 10 per 

bushel $16. 50 $44.00 

Total $18.82 $16.50 $20.95 $44.00 

Balance 1 6. 50 20.95 

Loss per acre .$2.32 

Gain per acre $23.05 

There were sixteen acres in the field. This made 
a total loss of $27. 12, while there would have been a 
net gain of $368.80 had the field produced forty- 
bushels per acre, which it ought to have done. The 
difference per acre in cost of growing forty bushels 
over a yield of fifteen bushels is only $2.13 per acre, 
while the difference in income would have been 
$27.50 per acre. But this $2.13 does not begin to 
represent the actual loss; saying nothing about all 
that labor being thrown away, the wasted plant 
food that was in the soil that must be returned, and 
the wear and tear of team and tools, etc. The seed- 
ing as may be expected failed to catch, and this was 
by far the greatest loss of all, a loss that no arith- 
metic can figure out. There was the loss of the 
timothy seed sown the fall before, and the clover 
sown in the spring, and the labor of putting it on 
(no very small items). But the further damage to 
the land itself, which, as I said before, is incalculable, 



Soiling. 41 

would undoubtedly have all been avoided had the 
land been in a higher state of cultivation. It is a 
case of " To him that hath shall be given, and from 
him that hath not shall be taken away even that which 
he hath." 

Sad and disappointing as was the above result, I 
have long since looked back upon it as a most for- 
tunate occurrence, and one of the best lessons in 
practical agriculture that I ever received. 

From the day I made those disappointing figures 
dated a complete change in my notions and methods 
of farmihg. I had absorbed all I knew about farm- 
ing, as a lad, while living on and visiting the old 
place. 

What had become of the old farm that was once 
known as one of the best in the county? The sun 
shone as brightly as ever upon it, nor were the 
clouds less generous or the dews less refreshing. 
The seasons also came in their usual rounds the 
same as of old. The land was all there, but what 
had become of the old farm? It had gone, for I 
soon discovered that my other crops were in pro- 
portion to my wheat crop. I was not able to figure 
out anything but a loss all the way through. 

The old farm as I knew it had disappeared; its 
fields were as beautiful, its meadows as peaceful, 
its woodland as delightful, its brook as charming, 
and its shady lane as inviting as ever, but the old 
farm had gone. It had been sold by the pound, by 
the bushel, and by the ton, peddled out along the 
wharves of the metropolis, sent away to foreign mar- 



42 Soiling. 

kets, and finally washed into the sea, and this is 
how it happened that, as I said in the beginning, 
"the number of cattle had been reduced by half, 
and the flock of sheep had disappeared entirely." 

" And is this what they call farming? " I asked 
myself. *' Is this the most independent life that a 
man can lead?" It seemed to me that this sort of 
thing was mere drudgery, and of all things the most 
dependent life a man could lead. I was simply 
working for my board and clothes, and running in 
debt for the latter on a farm of 127 acres, worth at 
that time $125 an acre, representing an investment 
of $15,875. "Is this the most healthful occupation 
a man can lead? " It looked to me to be a short cut 
to a premature grave. Was this the calling that all 
other men envied, and the source of wealth? It 
looked to me as if selling peanuts on the street 
corner at a profit was much more enjoyable. 

It seemed to me as if there was more independ- 
ence in a ten-acre clearing full of stumps where 
wheat could be grown at a profit, than in a 127-acre 
farm where it was grown at a loss. 

In making this general survey of the situation, I 
came to the conclusion that the only way of redeem- 
ing the fertility of the soil was the proper application 
of barnyard manure. Commercial fertilizers were 
not the fashion at that time ; even if they had been, 
their 'purchase was hardly to be considered, for some 
of my neighbors who had tried them in gravelly soil 
said that they did not pay. The farm was four miles 
from town, so that the purchase of stable manure was 



Soiling. 43 

out of the question. But there was no use going on 
without manure. Here came the rub. How was I 
to increase my stock when the few head I already 
had were not more than half fed? 

My faith from the first was in barnyard manure, but 
how to get it, that was the question. I drifted along 
through the first winter into the next summer, when 
presently I found the solution of the whole question 
worked out on my own place for me, and in a way I 
least expected. The answer to the problem was, 
"Soiling." I was forced into it against my will. I 
at first fought desperately, but soiling came out 
ahead, as will be seen in the next chapter. I give 
this personal experience so that if the reader is one 
who finds himself in a similar predicament (and I 
know thousands of my fellow farmers are or are 
very near it), the}^ may take heart and find some re- 
lief in the same direction, and, instead of rebelling 
against the way in which fate seems to be leading 
them, turn squarely about and go the way she 
points. I give this experience afso-for the benefit 
of the farmer whose faith is in barn5^ard manure in- 
stead of in commercial fertilizer. He will see, as 
perhaps no other can, how his fondest hopes may be 
more than realized, i.e.^ how he can manufacture 
five times as much barnyard manure as formerly 
and keep the same amount of ground under cultiva- 
tion for marketable crops. How he can always be 
sure, beyond any doubt, that he is returning to the 
soil yearly more plant food than he is taking from 
it, which means an increased fertility of the soilj 



44 Soiling. 

which means larger crops; which means more 
profit ; which means more books and papers, a bet- 
ter seat in the cars, at church, and at the theatre; 
better clothes, more recreation for himself, and a 
higher social position for his family. 

In a word it puts the man on the road to inde- 
pendence, and shows that a farmer's life after all is 
not the most dependent life a man can lead; and 
that in spite of the foreigners the Government keeps 
setting up in the farming business, in spite of being 
smothered by over-production, Jie may still pursue 
farming with the respect to himself and family that 
men of other professions enjoy, where an equal 
amount of capital is invested. 

How I Happened to Adopt Soiling. 

As I was saying in the last chapter, I drifted along 
until the following summer. I was very much dis- 
couraged. I saw no hope for anything better, I 
tried to make myself believe that the year before 
had been a bad season, an excuse that thousands 
and tens of thousands of farmers are yearly making 
as an apology for poor crops; the worst of it is that 
they seem to succeed in making themselves believe 
it. But I have long since noticed that a season too 
wet or a season too dry affects principally men who 
have farms like mine, farms that have been robbed 
of their fertility. It is usually an apology for not 
knowing how to farm ; shifting it onto the weather 
is the easiest thing in the world, but although I tried 
to work that excuse on myself, somehow it failed. 



Soiling. 45 

Finally, it carne about the middle or last of June, 
and my cattle began to get unruly. (I only had six 
head — think of only six cows and five horses on loo 
acres of tillable land! No wonder the fertility of 
the old farm had gone.) 

The old tumbled-down fences were no hindrance 
to the natural taste for adventure and desire to 
roam, which became magnified as the condition of 
the pasture diminished, and the spirit that entered 
the swine, or some that was left over, seemed to fill 
them in proportion as their stomachs became empty. 
They went wild themselves, and drove all hands 
nearly crazy. It was just at a time of year when 
farm work was driving, and, therefore, no time to 
build fences. 

In fact, after a week or two of schooling over the 
old fences surrounding the pasture, nothing was too 
high for them to get over. My cows, every one of 
them, were so proficient in jumping that they were 
fit to ride across any country to hounds, and as to 
speed, any farm lad knows how a steer can run 
through the corn. I remember driving them out of 
the corn myself one day, and having them jump back 
again in another place while I was patching up the 
first breach. 

If there could only have been a precipice where 
they could have run violently down into the sea and 
all have been drowned, I should have been a most 
happy spectator. 

The sleepless nights, the worry, the anxiety, the 
miserable fences that could not be fixed were all 



46 Soiling. 

more exhausting than a hard day's work after the 
plow or in the harvest field, and that had to be done 
besides. One day I was called from home, and 
when I returned, I asked my man if he had finished 
a certain piece of work I was particularly anxious to 
have accomplished that day. " No, sir. The cattle 
got out, and it took me nearly all the forenoon to 
get them back again and mend the fence." "Did 
you deliver the butter to the station this afternoon, 
as I told you?" "No, sir. Just as I was starting 
for the station, the cattle broke out again, and be- 
fore I could get them back it was too late to get to 
the train." That was the last straw. He told how 
he had chased the unruly brutes through the corn, 
in language that cannot be printed. 

I was pleased, however, to hear him express my 
own sentiments so forcibly. " I can't stay here, sir, 
if this thing goes on much longer." " I don't blame 
you, Pat," I replied. "I have a notion to quit my- 
self, but I can't spare you. There would be no one 
here to speak of the brutes as they deserve if you 
should go. Shut them in the barnyard at once, and 
feed them hay until we can cut some clover. We 
will rig up the mower and feed them green clover 
in the barnyard. They will not jump that eight- 
foot barnyard fence, will they, do you think?" 
"Sure, you will have to lock up the ladder," said 
Pat, whose ready tongue never forsook him, "or 
they will be climbing over it." Thus we began soil- 
ing. 

For a few days the cows were restless and home- 



Soiling. 47 

sick, and evidently pining for a gallop through the 
corn, but when we began feeding them green 
clover and they were thoroughly filled they became 
reconciled and peaceable. 

There is nothing like a full stomach to make a 
cow the most quiet and contented animal on the 
farm. The discontent they manifested the first 
week or so made me sorry for them, and if there 
had been a place to turn them, they would, no 
doubt, have gone out of the yard, and thus would 
have ended my experience in soiling. Fortunately 
there was no such place. At first we began feeding 
them in open racks in the barnyard, but this proved 
a failure. One boss cow would master the whole 
rack and succeeded in nearly goring a heifer. 
Again I was wishing I could turn them out. There 
was only one alternative, i.e.^ to fasten them in their 
winter stalls and feed them there. This we did, turn- 
ing them out nights. I took care not to let my neigh- 
bors know about this, for I knew they would laugh 
at me. Such a thing had never been heard of in 
that vicinity. 

Let me say right here, that I believe it is at this 
point that many a man who has tried soiling has 
failed or became discouraged. They have at- 
tempted partial soiling, when they have experienced 
all the inconveniences and only a small part of the 
benefits, and this is the case with everything else 
that is half done. As soon as we put the cattle in 
the barn, and tied them in their stalls, they began to 
gain wonderfully in flow of milk and to thrive be- 



48 Soiling. 

yond all expectation. I was surprised also at the 
very small amount of ground required daily to sup- 
port them handsomely, and I was still more sur- 
prised to find that the extra labor required to feed 
the cows and cut the clover in this manner was 
nothing like what I had imagined it would be, and 
then it dawned upon me that I might do this way 
all summer. Why not keep twelve cows instead of 
six? Make twice as much manure, and manure 
twice as good in quality, which amounts to four 
times as much. That's the thing to do, and the 
greatest load I ever attempted to carry in the form 
of a business enterprise was saddled onto soiling, 
and I found soiling quite able to carry it and much 
more besides. Thus began what proved to be the 
most successful and most economical method of 
feedinof farm stock. Thus I found a solution to the 
question. How to enrich the farm in a sure and 
economical way ; how to supply the farm stock with 
the most nutrious food at the least cost ; how to ob- 
tain a full flow of milk from our cows during the 
entire season, independently of parched pastures; 
how to increase the number of farm stock and the 
acreage of the farm without buying more land. 



CHAPTER V. 

ADVANTAGES OF SOILING. 

The advantages of soiling over pasturing are nu- 
merous. The principal reasons for its adoption 
may be found under the following headings: ist. 
Saving the land. 2d. Saving of fences. 3d. Sav- 
ing of food. 4th. The better condition and greater 
comfort of farm animals. 5th. The greater produc- 
tion of beef, milk, wool, or mutton. 6th. The in- 
creased quantity and quality of barnyard manure. 
7th. The increased fertility of the soil. 8th. The 
increased acreage of the farm. 

The disadvantage of the system as compared with 
pasturing is extra labor. 

The Saving of Land. 

Says the Hon. Josiah Quincy, whose experience 
in soiling covered a period of eighteen years: " One 
acre soiled from will produce as much as three acres 
pastured in the usual way, and there is no proposi- 
tion in nature more true than that any good farmei 
may maintain upon thirty acres of land twenty head 
of cattle the year round." He adds: "My own ex- 
perience has always been less than this, having ex- 
ceeded seventeen acres for twenty head." 

Mr. Henry Stewart, of New York, says: "I have 
4 



50 Soiling. 

kept the same amount of stock by soiling on seven- 
teen acres that I previously kept on fifty acres." 

By soiling, D. J. Powell, of Winchester, keeps 100 
cows on 100 acres, and he adds that ''with complete 
soiling I have kept fourteen cows on eleven acres 
the year around, with the help of a few loads of 
brewer's grains and some bran and meal." 

Where land is in a high state of cultivation some 
farmers claim to keep as many as seven and eight 
head by soiling where they were able to keep but 
one by pasturing. I ^think, as a rule, it is safe to 
say that, whatever land is required to support a 
full-grown animal during the pasturing season, the 
same land will support five or six head by soiling. 
My own experience has been even better than this. 
My farm at Alaple Lane contained just about 100 
acres of land inside the fences, after taking out roads, 
lanes, buildings, and woodland. On this loo-acre 
farm, before adopting soiling, I was only able to 
support twelve head of stock, which required of hay 
and pasture sixty acres per year, or five acres per 
head, which I find is about the usual amount 
throughout the country on good and fairly produc- 
tive farms. This left fort)^ acres for marketable 
crops. 

After adopting the soiling system, the number of 
farm stock increased until I had thirteen age cows, 
five yearlings, four calves, four horses, two colts, 
and seventy long-wooled (Cotswold) sheep. Esti- 
mating 1,000 lb. for a full-grown animal, this was 
equivalent to thirty-six head. These thirty-six 



Advantages of Soiling. ^ i 

head were supported from the product of thirty 
acres of land. This was the average for three 
years. This left me seventy acres for marketable 
crops. It will be seen that while I was keeping 
three times as much stock as formerly, 1 did so on 
just half the land, and at the same time nearly 
doubled the acreage of marketable crops. What 
does this mean? It means that thirty-six head at 
hay and pasture would have required i8o acres. 
The capacity of my farm was, therefore, increased 
from sixty to i8o, an increase of 120 acres. The 
acreage of my farm for marketable crops was in- 
creased from forty to seventy, an increase of thirty 
acres, or a total increase of 150 acres without buy- 
ing a rod of land. So much for the saving of land. 
In other words, any loo-acre farm that will support 
twenty head of cattle by hay and pasture (and that's 
about all it will do unless it is in a very high state of 
cultivation), that same farm by soiling will support, 
and in much better condition, 100 head of cattle. 
So far as soiling alone is concerned, if you were to 
buy a farm to support 100 head of cattle, and your 
method was hay and pasture, you would require at 
least 500 acres, to say nothing about grain. Where- 
as, if you adopt a strict soiling system, as hereafter 
described, you would be required to buy only 100 
acres, a saving of 400 acres. Is this not worth an 
effort? Can you not afford a little extra labor to 
make a loo-acre farm support 100 head of cattle in- 
stead of twenty? We shall discuss this point further 
under the head of extra labor. It may be asked, 



5^ Soiling. 

" How can a farm support such a heavy cropping? '* 
You will notice that where I had not quite doubled 
my acreage for marketable crops, I had three head 
of cattle for every one formerly kept. Nor was this 
all. My stock was not only producing three times 
as much barnyard manure in quantity, but its qual- 
ity, especially during the summer months, was at 
least doubled compared to what it would have been 
if made at pasture, where it is mostly destroyed by 
bugs and worms, or makes a rank growth where it 
drops, which all cattle shun for a year to come, and 
will only eat of it when absolute hunger compels 
them. There is another item of saving of land. 
All the land occupied by inside fences may be saved 
and turned to producing crops instead of being a 
yearly expense. 

Here is a sample of how the soiling system works, 
and may be demonstrated by any one who has the 
courage to try. May i, 1880, we turned twelve 
milch cows to pasture in a field containing four and 
one-half acres. At the end of the fourth week we 
were obliged to take them out, as they were getting 
very thin and shrinking badly in flow of milk. The 
pasture was exhausted. They were turned into the 
sheep pasture until June 7th, when we began soiling 
them, and the same twelve head were supported with 
all they could possibly consume for the next four 
months from the product of four acres, making one 
acre soiled from equal to four pastured, while the 
condition and comfort of the stock was so much bet- 
ter, and their yields so much greater, that there was 



Advantages of Soiling. 53 

really no comparison between the two systems. The 
value of the four acres pastured at 50 cents per week 
per head would be $24, while the four acres soiled at 
the same rate gave a feeding value of $96, a differ- 
ence in favor of soiling in the saving of land of $72. 
While this question of the saving of land is being dis- 
cussed, it is to be emphasized that in this particular 
lies the great advantage of soiling and ensilage over 
pasturage and hay. Experimental stations figure 
and analyze and show green crops but little better 
than hay and ensilage, but little better than cured 
forage, and they go into hair-splitting discussions 
on this line, forgetting that the great undeniable 
advantage that soiling and ensilage have over pas- 
ture and hay is that the soiling system enables the 
farmer to increase his acreage without buying more 
land. This work will not enter at all into the differ- 
ence in feeding value of green and cured forage. 
The soiling system gives the farmer such an enor- 
mous gain in the saving of land that all other 
questions are small and insignificant in comparison. 

-Particular stress is laid on this point, because it 
is so often lost sight of in discussing this ques- 
tion, especially by experimental stations. To re- 
peat, if there was not another single advantage of 
soiling summer and winter over the usual way for 
feeding, this question of saving of lands is so great 
and undeniable that the reader need not look be- 
yond it. However, there are other advantages 
which may be discussed, and several of them are 
quite enough in themselves to warrant adopting 



54 Soiling. 

the system, but the one grand object is and always 
must be the saving of land or the increased acreage 
of the farm. 

Saving of Fences. 

In some sections of the old countries where the 
soiling system is generally practised, the farmers 
have done away with interior and boundary fences, 
setting landmarks to indicate lines, and thereby 
working every foot of land. Says Mr. A. W. 
Cheever, in " The Country Gentleman " : " Another 
great advantage I find in soiling over pasturing is 
the saving of fences. None of my mowing or culti- 
vated fields are pastured at all, so that I have been 
enabled to dispense with all inside fences, and lately 
have been giving up the use of road fencing also." 

No farmer will disagree with me in saying that 
farm fences are great nuisances, harbors for rats, 
mice, and vermin, most convenient places for nox- 
ious weeds and grasses, and great hindrances in 
every stage of farm work. For instance, if we wish 
to cultivate two fields adjoining each other but 
separated by a fence, we must stop and turn about 
as we approach the fence from either side in plow- 
ing, harrowing, cultivating, rolling, drilling, reap- 
ing, and raking. Thus in growing a crop of corn, 
with a fence forty rods long it would require about 
1,500 or 1,600 turnings, and for wheat 1,200 or 
1,400, according to the mode of culture. All this 
wastes time, besides trampling down the ground and 
crops. As Mr. Quincy says, " The whole farm may 



Advantages of Soiling. 55 

be divided and cultivated with precise reference to 
the state of the soil, when the plow runs the length 
of the furrow determined by the judgment of the 
proprietor." His farm at one time had five miles of 
interior fence (equal to 1,600 rods), of which he 
says, " I have not now one rod of interior fence ; of 
course, the saving is great, distinct, and undeniable." 
My own farm was at one time divided into seven- 
teen fields, which required over 1,000 rods of inte- 
rior fence, the interest on the cost of which would 
pay the taxes on the entire property, or pay for all 
extra labor of soiling twelve or fourteen head of 
stock, to say nothing of the cost of yearly repairs. 
I built some 300 rods of fence soon after coming on 
the farm. It hardly made a showing compared to 
what was needed. It would have required an out- 
lay of $1,000 to put all the fences in proper shape, 
and for what? Simply to keep twelve head of stock 
from destroying the crops. Each field must be 
fenced, for, by the rotation of crops, each field was 
in turn pastured. 

Reader, if you are a farmer, don't build another 
rod of fence until you have given the soiling system 
a fair trial and find it a failure. Says D. S. Curtis 
on the cost of fencing, in the Agricultural Report of 
1859: "The most ordinary plain board fences cost 8 
to 10 shillings per rod, and more in many places, 
while rail fences are often still more costly. But 
taking the lowest estimate, $1 per rod, the expense 
of enclosing an eighty-acre lot would be $480 ; two 
cross fences, one each way, throwing the lot into 



56 Soiling. 

four twenty-acre fields, would cost $240 more, a 
larger sum than the value of the land in many lo- 
calities. " As Mr. A. E. Stewart says, "Soiling ef- 
fectually settles the fence question." 

Saving of Food. 

The great trouble with cows or any stock at pas- 
ture is that they soon find certain sweet grasses that 
particularly suit their taste, and to obtain these 
they tramp, tramp, tramp. Notice a lot of cows 
turned into a field of clover or grass. They drop 
their heads as soon as they are through the gate, and 
for a few moments they eat it as it comes. As soon 
as their keenest hunger is satisfied away they go. 
A cow sees another cow eating quietly in a certain 
spot, and she starts over there thinking she has 
something good. They finally find certain small 
patches in any field where the feed is very sweet. 
This they cut down close to the ground, and it is 
these sweets that destroy their taste for anything 
else. It is like turning a lot of children loose in a 
bake shop and confectionery store. At first they 
can eat ordinary bread and butter, but presently 
they throw it away for cookies, after that they 
throw away cookies for candy, and, finally, they are 
always hunting for candy and cookies. That is a 
fair comparison to a lot of cows turned into a good 
pasture and allowed to help themselves. Nothing 
tastes good to them but the very sweetest grasses, 
and they actually go hungry in the midst of plenty 



Advantages of Soiling. 57 

and tramp, tramp, tramp, in search of sweets. If 
you go into the same field and cut it as it comes, 
with a scythe, and feed it to them in the barn, they 
eat the good, the better, and the best, weeds and all, 
and do well on it. To find that best and sweetest 
mouthful, they have trampled as much as they will 
eat. They have wasted a lot of energy that might 
have been put to a better and more profitable use, 
seeking it; gone hungry, or next thing to it, be- 
cause they could not find enough to fill their stom- 
achs of the best, and come to the barn at night 
weary and tired. Of all extravagant, wasteful hab- 
its, the pasturing system has no equal. Tethering 
is a great improvement in this respect, if the cattle 
must go out. Tethering will be discussed more 
fully later on. 

There are several ways in which farm stock de- 
stroy their feed while at pasture, by tramping it un- 
der foot, by their dung and urine, and by lying on 
it. The more productive the pasture, the greater 
the loss. Just how much is wasted by these means, 
I do not know. Some estimate it at one-third, 
others at a half. Another item of more or less im- 
portance is that it is not so exhaustive of the soil to 
grow a crop of hay from it as to use it as pasture, 
especially if the grass of the pasture be closely 
cropped, thus leaving the soil more exposed to the 
sun. All these objections are overcome by soiling. 
The food may be cut at just the proper time, when 
the leaves and blossoms have reached their full de- 
velopment. It is often noticed that, here and there 



58 Soiling. 

in a field, patches of distasteful grasses or noxious 
weeds are left untouched by the stock, except in 
case of great hunger, and allowed to go to seed. 
The seed is scattered about the field and pressed 
into the soil under the hoofs of the feeding stock. 
In time the pasture thus becomes only a garden of 
weeds. This would never occur were the practice 
of cutting adopted. Mr. Youatt, an English author, 
says, in his valuable work, " The Complete Grazier " : 
" If a close consumption of plants is the object prin- 
cipally regarded, it is evident that the benefit to be 
derived from soiling will be very great ; for experi- 
ence has clearly proved that cattle will eat many 
plants with avidity, if cut and given to them in the 
barn, which they would never touch while growing 
in the field." 

The Better Condition and Greater Comfort 

OF Farm Stock. 

On this question there is no chance whatever for 
argument. The difference in the condition of cattle 
soiled and those at pasture is decidedly and positive- 
ly in favor of soiling. 

In the first place, all animals that chew the cud 
are particularly adapted to the soiling system for 
several reasons. The very nature of their digestive 
organs shows that they are best provided for when 
they can have their feed in abundance and near at 
hand. Their habit is to collect their food quickly 
until the first stomach or paunch is full, This first 



Advantages of Soiling. 59 

stomach is used as a basket or receptacle into which 
they store their food. When full they lie down, 
and it is then that the feeding proper begins. 
When a cow or sheep or other ruminating animals 
are grazing, they are not, as many suppose, in the act 
of eating. The}^ are simply gathering or collecting 
their food. The sooner they can do this collecting 
the better, because they do not like to begin eating 
until the basket is well filled. Besides, the less time 
it takes to fill the basket, the more time they have 
to eat and convert it into the desired product. 
Again, if they must waste a lot of energy and mus- 
cular force carrying themselves about, as they do 
when required to fill their baskets from a scanty 
pasture, that wasted energy, which is all at the ex- 
pense of food, as already shown, might better be 
employed in producing milk or butter. After the 
animals have filled this first paunch or basket, their 
habit, as before stated, is to lie down, and then the 
feeding properly begins by bringing up, from this 
first stomach, a cud at a time, which they proceed to 
masticate thoroughly, after which it is sent to the 
second stomach, and so on to the third and fourth 
stomachs, where it becomes digested and assimi- 
lated with the blood until the basket is emptied, 
when the cow is ready to collect it full again. 
Looking at the cow as a machine it will be seen 
that when she does not have to seek her food by 
walking miles for it in the hot sun, annoyed by 
the flies, etc., she is able to convert the largest 
amount of feed into the product her owner requires 



6o Soiling. 

at the least possible outlay of her strength, and the 
more basketsful of grass or forage she can make 
way with in a day the more profitable a machine 
she must become. 

A few years ago, when the Mohawk Valley was 
the principal dairy section of the State, we are told 
th^t it was the custom of the farmers and dairymen 
to cut down all the shade trees in their fields so that 
the cows would not be wasting time lying under 
them, when, as the owners thought, they should be 
up and at work. They also had bo)^s going about 
to drive their cattle up when they attempted to lie 
down. They said truthfully that milk was made 
from grass, and a cow was a machine, and she must 
eat so much to supply her own wants. The more 
she can be induced to eat in a day the greater will 
be her returns to the owner. But they based their 
reasoning on a mistaken notion, i. e. , that a cow was 
feeding or eating when she was grazing or collect- 
ing her food. While they were perfectly correct in 
assuming that their cattle were machines, and the 
owners' profit depended upon the amount of food the 
animals could be made to consume above what they 
required to heat their blood and supply their waste, 
they were entirely wrong in supposing that a cow 
was serving their best interests by being kept on 
her feet. The next thing is to provide them with 
the greatest possible comfort, so that when a cargo 
is ready for the mill, the mill will be in as perfect 
running order as possible. That is to say, when the 
cow lies down and the milling begins, she will have 



Advantages of Soiling. 6i 

a comfortable resting-place, clean, dry, and easy. 
No one would think of starting a factory with- 
out first oiling the machinery, and so adjusting 
its parts that it will run with the greatest possible 
ease. The tie should be such as will enable her to 
lie in a perfectly natural position. When you have 
provided the raw materials and everything is oiled 
and ready, your cow then is in the best possible 
position to do business as a profitable member of the 
farm household. With a well-contented mind and 
a well-filled stomach, she can work up several times 
as many cargoes a day as if her time was being 
spent chasing about the pasture looking for sweets 
and fighting flies. At any rate, you, as manager 
and proprietor of the mill, have done your part, and 
there is no excuse whatever for the cow, and no in- 
clination, you will find, except to do her best and at- 
tend strictly to business. Nor is the question of the 
collection of their food with the least possible labor 
and a good comfortable place in which to lie down 
the only thing that adds to the greater comfort and 
better condition of stock soiled. By keeping them 
in their stables day-times, they are protected from 
the enervating heat of the sun. They are also shel- 
tered from storms, secured from jumping into fields 
of growing grain or fruit orchards. They are pro- 
tected from drinking muddy, impure water and 
against thirst. This last is an item that is not, as a 
rule, given the attention it deserves. Milk is 84% 
per cent, water, and a supply of good fresh water, 
close at hand, is a very important item, because, 



62 Soiling. 

when a cow is turned to pasture, and has to go 
to a distant part of a field to help herself, she 
waits until great thirst drives her to it. Finally, 
when she does go, instead of getting a drink and 
returning to business, she overloads her stomach 
with water, and stands about in the stream or 
pond until absolute hunger drives her out again. 
So she lives on from day to day, eating only 
when she is very hungry, and drinking only when 
thi'rst becomes excessive. The soiling system, 
with a good well or spring at the barn, prevents 
all this annoyance, and is no small matter in add- 
inof to the comfort and also to the credit account 
of the animal. 

Lastly, and perhaps most important of all, so far 
as the animals' comfort is concerned, by a proper 
system of soiling the cattle are protected from 
flies, those awful pests that sap their blood and 
drive them to a state little short of frenzy. How 
can cattle so tormented be expected to do a good 
day's work? Living in the best of pastures after 
the middle of June is simply living to exist. To 
show skeptical people that cattle preferred being shut 
up in their stables in fly-time, to roaming at will in 
pastures, I have turned my cattle out — away they 
would go with their tails over their backs until the 
flies got after them, when back they came to their 
stalls as fast as they went. 

If the reader could see the difference in the con- 
dition of the cattle soiled and those pastured after 
the beginning of fly-time, he would see such a con- 



Advantages of Soiling. 63 

trast as would reqtiire no farther argument to con- 
vince him of its vahie. 

Look at that poor, gaunt cow as she comes from a 
pasture field after a hard day's work, fighting flies un- 
til she is desperate, and sometimes until she has 
given up in despair, too exhausted to battle longer 
against them, or attempt to dislodge them as they 
cluster on her neck and back undisturbed. Notice 
her shuffling gait and melancholy face, the picture 
of despondency, her hair standing on end. Turn 
out into the same barnyard a cow that has been 
properly soiled in stables darkened to exclude the 
flies ; she is as plump as partridges after wheat har- 
vest. She acts like a school-boy from his books, 
eyes bright, head erect, step sprightly, hair sleek, 
stomach full, and ready for a frolic. This is no 
fancy sketch ; indeed, I feel as if I had failed fully to 
represent the great contrast, as I have often wit- 
nessed it. I feel safe in saying that I think that no 
candid farmer, however prejudiced he may be against 
stabling his cows in summer, would need any other 
proof to convince him that, so far as the greater com- 
fort and healthful condition of the stock is concerned, 
the soiling system affords the most gratifying results, 
and adds materially to the profits. 

Greater Production of Beef, Milk, and Butter. 

On this question, there can be but one opinion, 
i.e., that to produce either beef, milk, or butter, the 
result will depend upon the amount of food con- 



64 Soiling. I 

sumed, and the profit will largely depend upon fur- ! 

nishing our stock with an abundance of succulent 
food during the entire year. To accomplish this i 

independently of parched pastures and drought is 
not a difficult matter by the practice of soiling. '. 

The following testimony as to the superiority of 
the system was given by Mr. E. W. Stewart, in an 
article in "The Country Gentleman": "We shall 
find the same reasons apply in still greater force, in 
the slaughter of beef and mutton. Animals in- 
tended for slaughter should have different treatment 
from those whose value depends upon the develop- 
ment of muscle. Those reared for labor need much 
exercise, as well as appropriate food, for strengthen- 
ing the bony and muscular system ; but those in- 
tended for human food need only so much exercise 
as promotes health and a vigorous appetite. And, 
as we have seen, soiling gives a greater command 
over the supply of food at all times, so when prop- 
erly conducted it must afford a greater certainty of 
rapid growth. We have easily grown calves on 
green food fed in the yard, together with skimmed 
milk, that weighed 700 lb. at ten months old. We 
have uniformly found this system more favorable to 
the growth of young animals than pasturing — that 
less milk or grain in addition is required to produce 
equal growth. And steers and heifers during the 
second year will make a steady and uniform growth 
on the full soiling system, with the liberty of a small 
lot for exercise. Animals for beef or milk are not 
grown for muscular exercise. They need most full 



Advantages of Soiling. 65 

feeding-, fresh air, and kind attention. The skilful 
feeder has here an opportunity to observe the wants 
of each animal, and may always supply them. 

" There must be no standing still if a steer is to gain 
two pounds for every day of its age up to 900 days. 
German and French beef growers adopt largely a 
strict soiling system, and produce a higher average 
weight at a given age, than any pasturing people 
has attained. 

" Soiling also offers the opportunity of doing the 
principal fattening in warm weather, when not more 
than seventy-five per cent, of the food is required to 
make the same gain as in winter. We tested the 
comparative effect of soiling and pasturing on the 
same class of animals, by putting five two-year-old 
steers and heifers, weighing 4,500 lb., into a good 
pasture, while five of the same age and condition, 
weighing 4,450 lb., were soiled, with exercise in a 
small yard, and at the end of four months, while 
those in pasture had gained 625 lb., the five soiled 
had gained 7501b., with nothing but green soiling 
food, making the two lots equal in kind of food. 
The pasture, although good and abundant when 
the experiment began,, did not continue through- 
out equally good on account of dry weather, while 
the soiling food was given in equal abundance to the 
end." 

Mr. Brown, of Mankle, Scotland, tried the com- 
parative merits of soiling and pasturing in fattening 
forty-eight steers equally divided. The twenty-four 
soiled brought ^377, and the twenty-four pastured 
5 



66 Soiling. 

;^342, a difference in favor of soiling of ^35, or a 
profit of over $7 per head, to say nothing of the sav- 
ing of land and the increase of manure. 

In regard to the greater production of milk Mr. 
Stewart relates the most remarkable test of the two 
systems, published by Dr. Rhode, of the Eidena 
Royal Academy of Agriculture of Prussia. It was 
conducted through seven years of pasturing, and 
then through seven years of soiling. Mr. Hermann 
is the experimenter. The pasturing began in 1853, 
and ended in 1859, the soiling began in i860, and 
ended in 1866. From forty to seventy cows were 
pastured each year, and a separate account kept 
■with each cow. The lowest average per cow is 1,385 
qts. in 1855, when seventy cows were kept, and the 
highest 1,941 qts. in 1859, when forty cows were pas- 
tured, and the greatest quantity given by one cow 
was 2,988 qts. The average increased during the 
last four years from 1,400 to 1,941 qts. The aver- 
age for each cow for the whole seven years of pas- 
turing was 1,583 qts. In the soiling experiment 
twenty-nine to thirty-eight cows were kept, and the 
lowest average per cow was 2,930 qts. in 1862, and the 
highest per cow was 4,000 qts. in 1866. The highest 
quantity given by one cow was 5,110 qts. in 1866. 
The average per cow for the whole seven years of 
soiling was 3,442 qts. The yield of the same cow is 
compared for different years. Cow No. 4 gave in 
i860, Zi^c>^ qts.; in 1863, 4,570 qts.; in 1866, 4,960 
qts. Cow No. 24 gave in i860, 3,293 qts. ; in 1863, 
4,843 qts. ; in 1866, 4,800 qts. 



Advantages of Soiling. 67 

Many of these were the same cows in both experi- 
ments ; and it will seem that the same cow increased 
from year to year, showing what full feeding will do, 
and also another important fact, that this full feed- 
ing was conducive to health of the cow during the 
seven years. 

Dr. Wright says of soiled cows that they " will, at 
least, equal, if not surpass, those kept in the usual 
way, in both quantity and quality of milk, and the 
dairyman, by adopting this method, finds his profits 
enhanced nearly one-fourth." An English author 
says, " The cows used to stall feeding will yield a 
much greater quantity of milk, and will increase 
faster in weight when fattening, than those which go 
into the field. " 

I have made repeated experiments which satisfied 
myself in regard to the increase of milk and butter, 
and with the exception of the first month or two 
(May and June) I have never failed to get better 
results from the soiling system. The author of 
" Ogden Farm Papers, " in the " American Agricultur- 
ist," has a very interesting article on the subject of 
soiling, in which he says: " The product of cows will 
be more in the case of soiling than in the other. In 
June I was making a very satisfactory amount of 
butter. So were the pasture men all around me. 
Now that the drought has (in spice of passing rains) 
begun to affect the pastures, their product is falling 
off, and by September will be materially lessened. 
My product is increasing week by week, until, from 
the same number of cows, it is now more than ten 



68 Soiling. 

per cent, more than in June, and, experience of pre- 
vious years has shown, it will be fully ten per cent 
more m September than it is now." 

The Increased Quantity and Quality of 
Manure. 

So much has been already said on the question of 
manures, that the reader knows what a high value I 
place upon that produced in the barnyard, and its 
comparison with the costly and uncertain results ob- 
tained from commercial fertilizers. 

No farmer needs to be told that, if he has an 
abundant supply of manure, he can raise large 
crops. The want of it, more than any one thing 
connected with farming, makes thousands of farm- 
ers and their families slaves to unremitting toil, 
drudging through life, when if one-quarter of the 
labor that is spent in trying to subsist by cultivat- 
ing exhausted soils were turned to accumulating a 
restorative, independence would take the place of 
dependence, and the farmer enjoy all the comforts 
implied by well-filled barns and granaries. 

Manure is the very life and soul of husbandry. It 
is the basis of vegetable production, the substructure 
on which the farmer can alone hope to build success- 
fully. The attainment of manure by the soiling 
system is one of the greatest and most characteristic 
benefits to be derived from its practice, and the 
amount which thus naturally accumulates far ex- 
ceeds all anticipation. All who have had practical 



I 



Advantages of Soiling. 69 

experience agree, so far as I have been able to learn, 
that the value of the manure made under this system,, 
when properly conducted, is worth at the very least 
twice as much- as that made while pasturing, where 
it destroys as much feed as its virtue enriches the 
soil. A great part is lost by falling upon rocks, 
among bushes, and in watercourses. It is evapor- 
ated by the sun. But the saving of land, of fences, 
of food, the better condition and greater comfort of 
the farm stock, the increase in the production of 
beef, milk, and butter, and the attainment of manure, 
are all subservient and subordinate to the one prime 
object and benefit to be derived from the system, i.e.. 

The Increased Productiveness of the Soil. 

The first, greatest, and most important question 
chat can occupy, the attention of Eastern farmers is, 
in my opinion, how to restore the fertility of our 
soils; and as to the Western farmer, how he may 
preserve it. If the reasons already given here have 
nothing in them of sufficient importance to induce 
the farmer to adopt the soiling system, the fact that 
it affords the surest and most economical way of in- 
creasing the fertility of his soil should lead him to 
give the system a fair and thorough trial. And, 
again, to the farmer who wishes to add more acres 
to those he already owns, the soiling system affords 
a certain means of doing" so without buying more 
land. In my own experience, as already shown, 
soiling has nearly doubled the acreage of my culti- 



70 Soiling. 

vated land ; it has increased the quantity of manure 
three times, and the quality of the same to five or six 
times the amount produced by the hay and pasture 
system. I find, in looking about, that thirty-six head 
of full grown stock and seventy acres of marketable 
crops (by soiling and ensilage) were about as much 
as under the hay and pasture system was produced 
from an average farm of five hundred acres. My 
farm is by no means in a high state of cultivation 
(about thirty to thirty-five bushels of wheat per 
acre). The system has done no more for me than 
it may do for any farmer who will conform to its re- 
quirements, which are simple but exacting. 

From fifteen bushels of wheat per acre, and other 
crops in proportion, the old farm at Maple Lane had 
in eight years quite doubled that, having taken thirty 
and one-fourth bushels of wheat per acre from the 
same field that the first year produced only fifteen. 

The Increased Acreage. 

In older countries the farmers have been obliged 
to increase the yield of their present possessions by 
doubling and trebling the acreage of their farms. 
As in crowded cities they add to the capacity of 
their factories and houses by building up story 
above story, so the farmers of these older countries 
build up their soil until they are two, three, or four 
stories high. That is to say, they have increased 
the productiveness of their soil, until one acre is 
made to produce what formerly required two, three, 



Advantages of Soiling. 71 

or four acres. There is, I venture, hardly a farmer 
east of the Mississippi who would not be glad to 
know how this may be accomplished. The secret is 
an open one — by keeping a large number of farm 
animals, and this is the result of soiling. 

In France and Germany 'soiling is the rule, and 
pasturing the exception, and the number of their 
live stock has been greatly increased since the intro- 
duction of the sugar-beet industry. It is hardly 
necessary to add that their soil has increased corre- 
spondingly in productiveness ; while under the pas- 
ture system productiveness in America has as stead- 
ily declined, until the average wheat yield is only 
about thirteen bushels per acre. Let me show 
you what the soiling of thirty-six head of cat- 
tle did for me by way of increasing the acreage of 
my farm. 

You will remember that I started with twelve 
head, seven cows and five horses. These twelve 
head required sixty acres of hay and pasture, be- 
sides the coarse forage, such as stalks and straw, 
that grew on the other forty acres of my loo-acre 
farm. (I have gone over this once under the head 
of saving of land. I wish to emphasize it now un- 
der this head.) By soiling and ensilage (which is 
simply winter soiling), I was able to increase my 
stock from twelve head to thirty-six. Thirty-six 
head at pasture would have required 180 acres, an 
increase of 150 acres. At the same time my acreage 
for marketable crops was increased from forty to 
seventy acres, or an increase of thirty acres, making a 



72 Soiling. 

total increase of acreage of i8o acres, without buying 
a foot of land; this, added to the original farm, gave 
an equivalent of 280 acres. These figures are start- 
ling, but there is no getting past them. I am not say- 
ing what I think may be done, but what actually hap- 
pened. If we are frightened when we think of the 
extra labor it will incur to soil our cattle, just think a 
moment. Is it not worth a little extra labor to add to 
the acreage of a loo-acre farm another 180 acres with- 
out buying it? Nor is that all. The same acres under 
the soiling system more than doubled in productive- 
ness, as already shown. So that taking the old farm 
as I started with it, which is about the average of the 
farms, I have practically increased my acreage from 
100 to 500. Do you say that that is too liberal? 
Just look about you to-day, and see how many 500- 
acre farms you can find where the system of hay for 
winter and pasture for summer is the method, and 
how many can' you find that carry over thirty-six 
head of full-grown stock, and at the same time have 
under cultivation for marketable crops to be sold off 
the farm over seventy acres? When you show me 
that farm, I will show you one that is above the 
average. Here lies (both soiling and ensilage) the 
great and undeniable advantage over pasturing. 
Beside it, all other points here mentioned sink into 
insignificance. 

When ensilage first came out, our experimental 
stations haggled, and contradicted, and doubted, 
always looking to the comparative value of hay, or 
cornstalks, and ensilage, losing sight entirely of the 



Advantages of Soiling. 73 

great advantage, ?.r., that by growing ensilage, you 
made one acre produce what formerly required five, 
six, and eight. The same is true of soiling. It is 
the increased acreage without buying more land that 
gives the system an advantage so wide, so great, so 
unmistakable that there leaves nothing more to be 
said. Lately our stations have taken up soiling. 
Most of them are looking to see how many more 
quarts of milk are produced by one system over the 
other. Of course, it is always in favor of soiling, 
br^t that is but one of the least of the advantages. 
Others talk about the saving of fences, better con- 
dition of the cattle ; but the two great questions are 
the greater production of barnyard manure, and the 
still greater advantage that it enables us to double, 
and treble, and quadruple our acreage without buy- 
ing more land. 

Do you say that this is too good to be true? Do 
you doubt its practical application to farming in 
general? Let me show you where a single colony 
of 1, 200 farmers are all producing much better results 
than any herein reported. I refer to the Channel 
islands, Guernsey and Jersey. The island of Jersey 
is twelve to fourteen miles long, and four to seven 
miles wide. It has a population of 55,000, with 40,000 
to 50,000 visitors annually. The average size of the 
farms is eight acres, and there are about 10,000 
acres farmed. On this amount of farming land, 
there were, according to the last census, 11,891 head 
of Jerseys and 2,343 horses. This makes 14,234 
head of live-stock that are being supported from 



74 Soiling. 

10,000 acres of land, nearly one and one-half head 
for every acre farmed. 

The principal industry is the growing of early 
potatoes for the English markets. On an eight-acre 
farm will usually be found four or five acres of po- 
tatoes (followed by a crop of roots the same season), 
two acres of grass, and one of hay, oats, and a patch 
of tree cabbage as a soiling crop for the pigs. Such 
a farm will carry two to three horses, and seven to 
ten head of cattle, besides pigs and poultry. 

All the cattle are soiled the year around except 
the cows in milk, which are tethered, that is to say, 
they are fastened by a rope or chain to an iron peg 
driven in the ground. The tether is ten or twelve 
feet in length. They begin at one end of a field, and 
when they have mowed a swath clean the length of 
their tether, they are moved on, and so along across 
the field. By the time the field has been fed over 
in this manner, it is ready to start again at the be- 
ginning. A field is fed over five or six times dur- 
ing a season. Of course, the land is very produc- 
tive. Three hundred bushels of early partly grown 
potatoes per acre is about the usual yield. This 
little island, besides principally supporting this very 
large population, exports annually of farm products 
between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000. This io,ccc 
acres is only a good-sized Western farm. This 
leads me to sa}' that the Jersey farmers are the best 
and most scientific agriculturists in the world. 
They pay from $40 to $75 an acre annual rent for 
their farms, and make a better living off of an eight- 



Advantages of Soiling. 75 

acre farm, as a rule, than any farmers I know of in 
America do on 100 acres. This shows what can be 
done on a fertile soil. This enormous production 
is principally owing to the great number of farm 
stock which is made possible by the soiling system. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PARTIAL SOILING. 

My experience in partial soiling is not particularly 
satisfactory as compared with a strict soiling sys- 
tem. It is a step in the right direction, and is just 
that much better than pasturing. But, as said be- 
fore, you get all the discomforts of the system, and 
only a small share of the benefits. If you should 
see a man cut his hay or ensilage, and bring it to 
the barn and dump it on the ground, you would say, 
"Why do 3"ou not stack it properly? See what a 
great waste and inconvenience. Why do you not 
run your ensilage fodder through a cutter and put 
it in the silo, and do the work properly? Half do- 
ing a thing is never more than starting." Well, 
that is how it always looks to me to see a man try- 
ing partial soiling. Take my advice and go the 
whole figure. Do it right, as you would do anything 
else, and you will, at least, know whether the system 
is good or bad. You simply do not know how good 
it is, because you never tried. You can never learn 
to skate by simply sliding on the ice, or to swim by 
taking a foot bath. 

It is something of an effort to begin. Your 
neighbors will probably laugh at you and call you a 
book farmer and that sort, but when you make a loo- 



Partial Soil 



ing. 77 



acre farm produce what generally requires 400 or 
500 acres, you can satisfy yourself with the old say- 
ing, " He laughs best who laughs last." 

I do not mean to advise you to go into the system 
with a rush. Go into it gradually. There are little 
things that will come up the first year or two that 
may discourage you, something you did not think 
of. 1 shall try to give you my experience and prac- 
tice, and if you keep near the line, I am sure you 
will succeed. But when you do try, put your cattle 
in the barn and feed them there. Put them in day- 
times and turn them into a small pasture or enclosure 
nights ; and whatever you do, do not begrudge a lit- 
tle extra labor. You cannot get something for noth- 
ing, but you can get more from soiling for the money 
expended than anything I know or ever heard of in 
connection with farming. 

Objections to Partial Soiling. 

One master cow will occupy a whole rack. After 
she has mussed it over and breathed on it for a time, 
others will only eat it when compelled to from hun- 
ger. Feeding in the field is little better. The cat- 
tle drive and hook one another about, and grab a 
mouthful here and another there, and eat it in fear, 
when they should have it by themselves in quiet. 
They tramp upon it, foul it, tramp up the meadow, 
destroying the grass and tramping in weed seeds to 
pester you for years to come. One cow sees an- 
other ten rods away eating something that looks like 



yS Soiling. 

a nice stalk or mouthful, and immediately she is 
seized with a jealous desire to have that same 
mouthful, and away she dives. If the other is on 
the watch, and quick enough, and can run fast 
enough, she gets out of the way. The most you have 
gained b)^ this system of feeding cattle is that you 
have given them a good stirring up. One has lost 
a horn, another an eye, and by the end of a few 
weeks the weaker ones that needed the extra feed 
are mostly cripples, or stand on the outside and 
eat what the others refuse. The cow that gives milk 
has shut down, because her principal business now 
is to chase and fight. Feeding a lot of cows, es- 
pecially those with horns, soiling crops in a yard or 
field might do very well if they were being trained 
for a football match, but you will find that they 
will do better with half the amount fed to them 
quietly, each in her own stall. Again, by partial 
soiling, you miss another great benefit, protection 
from flies, those little pests that drive the cattle 
to distraction; instead of filling themselves up to 
their fullest capacity so that they can give you a 
brimming pail of milk as a reward, they stand in 
a pool of water between a couple of bushes or under 
a thicket, fighting, fighting all day, except when 
sheer hunger drives them out to seek a few mouth- 
fuls, and when they do go out to feed, it is for 
themselves and not for you. They must do it to 
get a bit of fuel to heat their blood and supply a 
new draught for the hordes of flies that will tap and 
rob them of it to-morrow. 



Partial Soiling. 79 

All partial soiling can do is to patch out a poor 
pasture. You have not done away with any of the 
annoyance or disadvantage, and the questions of the 
saving of land, and manure, and fences, comfort of 
stock, greater production of milk and butter, are not 
answered. 

All these objections are easily overcome by simply 
feeding the cows in their stables. The extra labor 
of cleaning the stables is compensated, it is safe to 
say, several times over in the question of manure 
alone. Put them in the barn daytimes and turn 
them out nights (after milking them), and milk them 
in their stalls in the morning, thus avoiding all run- 
ning and chasing, and clubbing them with milk- 
stools, to say nothing about the greater comfort to 
the milkers, especially in fly time. 

By partial soiling, as was said at the beginning, 
you have all the loss and inconvenience of pasturing 
with only a small fraction of the benefits; while 
the greatest and most important lesson to be had 
from a strict soiling system, i.e.^ greater production 
of barnyard manure, is lost sight of. 

Let me admonish my readers who have hitherto 
practised partial soiling to take just one more step 
in advance, and you have my word for it that in 
that one step you will go from darkness to light, 
from patching an old garment to a new, up-to-date, 
tailor-made suit which is yours almost for the ask- 
ing. 



CHAPTER VII. 
OBJECTIONS TO SOILING. 

Extra Labor. ^ 

The only objection to soiling- that any one can 
possibly make is the question of extra labor. In 
the first edition of this work was noticed one other 
objection which was sometimes made, i.e.^ lack of 
exercise. In those days there was not one farmer 
in ten that stabled his cows winters, to say nothing 
of summers. This may seem strange to my 
younger readers, but with the exception of a few 
dairymen, who furnished milk to town, I believe I 
had about the first farm i)arn in the county fitted 
with cow stables. This was early in the seventies. 
The objection was that the cattle needed more exer- 
cise. In those days, cattle were fed in open racks 
under open sheds, and under the shelter of straw 
stacks. 

But since that time, there have been great changes 
in the methods of stabling, until now not one farmer 
in ten can be found w^ho does not stable his cows in 
winter. Therefore, mention of this objection, i.e.^ 
lack of exercise, has been omitted entirely in this re- 
vised edition. The cattle are turned out nights, and 



Objections to Soiling. 8 i 

stabled daytimes, so that no one will be found now 
to object to soiling on this ground. 

The question of extra labor, however, cannot be 
disposed of as easily. But even that has become 
very much simplified and cheapened. It never was 
in the first place half as much of an objection as it 
appears to be. This question of extra labor is a 
bugbear. First, let me ask you who are not soiling 
your cows because of the extra labor, to mention 
any branch of farm economy worth having but that 
does require extra labor, which generally increases 
in proportion to the benefits derived. The only ex- 
ception knowm of to that rule is soiling. There is, 
to repeat, not another thing in practice, or that is 
known, or can be mentioned, where the returns are 
so great as the returns for the extra labor invested 
in soiling. The great trouble is that we do not see 
beyond the mere question of getting something into 
our cows' stomachs, and if they will get it there 
themselves, what is the use of our troubling? 
That's the principle. That is the way we invari- 
ably have of looking on the subject. We plant corn 
because it won't plant itself. There seems always 
enough of that sort of work we must do without 
cutting grass and hay for cattle, and carrying it to 
the barn for them, and then putting it before them 
in their racks several times a day, and cleaning out 
the stables after them, and darkening the stables so 
that the flies won't bite them. That is the way we 
approach the subject. It looks like the mistress of 
the house preparing a dinner of quail on toast for 
6 



82 Soiling. 

the hired girl in the parlor. How many times are 
farmers heard to say : " Oh, my cows are quite aS able 
to help themselves as I am to help them. If the 
best pasture I can give them is not good enough, 
they can go without. " That is the way we generally 
go about solving the soiling question, and many of 
us never get beyond that point. The extra labor of 
soiling over pasturing is greatly magnified. Thirty- 
six head of cattle may be soiled at an additional cost 
for extra labor of $i per day, 3 cents^per head. My 
own experience in soiling twelve head of milch 
cows is that all the extra labor aside from growing 
the soiling crop did not require more than three 
hours a day extra labor, and the work was accom- 
plished by a boy fifteen years old. I cannot give 
exact cost of growing the crop, etc., as no minute 
was made of it at the time, but I feel perfectly safe 
in the above estimate. Let us see in what this extra 
labor consists : plowing the land, seed, and time to 
put it in, cutting and delivering the same to the 
barn and to the cows, and cleaning the stalls. As 
you will see further on in a detailed account of how 
this is accomplished, the extra, labor to soil cattle 
over pasturing is very insignificant in comparison to 
the benefits. 

"Soiling," says Mr. H. Stewart, "is a little more 
laborious than pasturing, but $1 spent in extra labor 
is replaced ten times over in saving of land, saving 
of feed, and saving of manure. I have found labor 
very much cheaper than feed." Again he says: 
" Besides fifteen cows, there were three horses, 



Objections to Soiling. 83 

seven heifers, one bull (twenty-six head), and some 
pigs. All the cleaning-, feeding, and attendance on 
these animals was done by a boy of fourteen years 
for one year, and the boy had considerable time to 
spend in field work. The extra labor involved is 
well repaid by the extra manure made, and the gain 
from the cattle and the increased fertility of the 
soil will be clear profit. The bugbear of labor is a 
phantom. It is imaginary. The need is more for 
head work than for hand work." 

Another writer in " The Country Gentleman," who 
has had many years' experience in soiling, says, " It 
requires one man to spend half of his time cutting, 
hauling to the barn, and feeding forty-eight cows, 
at $1 per day " (a trifle over i cent per cow). 

I never could see why a farmer should object to 
extra labor, when there is found a profit in it. It is 
rarely that a man accumulates wealth from the labor 
of his own hands. The carpenter, blacksmith, shoe- 
maker, or other mechanic who ever becomes well-to- 
do, usually owes his prosperity to the labor of other 
men's hands. There is a great amount of work 
to be performed upon a farm that would pay a 
handsome profit, but, as it does not always return 
to the farmer directly in cash, he is inclined to apply 
himself to such work only as puts the " almighty 
dollar " directly in his pocket. This, I think, is 
another reason why the soiling system is not more 
generally practised. Many do not like to see a crop 
of green rye, oats, or peas cut down and fed to 
stock, when, by waiting a few weeks longer, they 



84 Soiling. 

could harvest it, and deliver the grain to market 
for cash. It has often been remarked by visitors 
at my place, who have witnessed the cutting of a 
splendid crop of oats or rye just as it was head- 
ing out, " What a pity! " It is a greater pity, in my 
estimation, to see a man so short-sighted as to be- 
come " penny wise and pound foolish. " Such men try 
to see how little they can feed and keep their stock 
alive. They go on year after year, plowing wheat 
after wheat, yearly reducing their stock and the fer- I 

tility of their soil, and grumbling because " farming I 

don't pay." Let us see what the expenditure of $1 
per day for extra labor accomplished in my case. 
My farm contained only 100 acres of tillable land and 
pasture. By the hay and pasturing system, as be- 
fore mentioned, I was able to keep only twelve head 
of stock a 3^ear on sixty acres. By soiling summer 
and winter, I was able to keep thirty-six head of full- 
grown stock from the product of thirty acres. Who 
is there who cannot afford $1 per day in extra labor 
to produce such results as these? 



CHAPTER VIII. 
SOILING VERSUS PASTURING. 

Penns. Bui. No. 21, page 105 (1889). 

" In instituting a comparison between the yields of 
pasturing and soiling, it is necessary to take ac- 
count of the fact that, by our system, two crops of 
soiling are grown on the same ground in the same 
season. These ma}^ be either rye and corn or clover 
and corn. In computing the yield of corn and add- 
ing the yield of rye, and in the other that of the 
clover, and, finally, averaging these sums, the result 
is as follows: 

Digestible Digestible 

Organic Matter. Albuminoids. 

Pasture 1,125 249 pounds. 

Soiling, rye and corn 5.776 328 '* 

Soiling, clover and corn 5, 9^4 374 " 

" The average yield of edible, digestible matter by 
soiling crops is 5.2 times as great as that by pastur- 
ing. We may say that, in round numbers, we can 
produce from three to five times as much digest- 
ible food per acre by means of soiling crops as is 
produced by pasturing represented by our small 
plots." 



86 Soiling. 

Greater Production of Milk. 
Iowa Ex. Bui., No. 15, page 274 (1891). 

"The losses that occur annually to our farmers 
from the drying up of their pastures in July, Au- 
gust, and September, induced us to grow a few acres 
of green feed, and ascertain to what extent such 
feed of different kinds can be had from an acre of 
land, how much a cow requires of each kind, and 
the effects of such feeding on quantity and quality 
of milk compared with well-watered and well-shaded 
blue-grass pasture. The principal objection to soil- 
ing has been that time is too expensive to be em- 
ployed for this purpose. Time and circumstances 
are breaking the force of this argument. Iowa 
lands have become high-priced. Many of them are 
stacked with herds of valuable animals that must 
respond, or they will not pay. Growth, meats, and 
milk are made cheapest in summer. Droughts of 
July and August call for something to round out the 
season's work. These considerations induced the 
station to begin experiments in this direction. Be- 
gan June 20th, when the drought was drying up the 
pastures. We sowed for soiling crops winter rye, 
clover, oats, and peas. 

" Oats and peas were fed from June 20th to July 
28th, when oats and second cut clover were substi- 
tuted until August 8th, when green corn and clover 
were fed to the end. Six cows were selected; all 



Soiling versus Pasturing. 



87 



received the same ration. Three of the cows, Nos. 
21, 22, and 23, were tied up in a darkened, ventilated 
barn and let out each day for water and exercise. 
On August 9th, they were turned out and the other 
three, Nos. 209, 220, and 244, were tied up. They 
were fed eighty pounds daily of forage crops except 
Nos. 220 and 244, that had one hundred pounds each, 
being larger cows. The milk was weighed each milk- 
ing and analyzed by the chemist periodically. 



Cow No. 21 in stable 48 days . 
Cow No. 21 in pasture 48 days 

In favor of soiling 

Cow No. 22 in stable 48 days. . 
Cow No. 22 in pasture 48 days 

In favor of soiling 

Cow No. 33 in stable 48 days. . 
Cow No. 33 in pasture 48 days. 

In favor of soiling 

Total gain 



Milk. 



133.700 
104.800 

28.900 

127.250 
117.050 



133-825 
111.075 

22.750 
61.S50 



Fat, 
Pounds. 



47.199 

39-785 

7.414 

43.685 
40.560 

3-125 
45-632 
41-137 

4-495 



15-334 



Solids, 
Pounds. 



162.671 
^34-053 
386.18 

156.088 
146.895 

9-193 

160.897 

137-835 

23.092 



142.903 



Summary. 



" The cows first tied up increased in milk while in 
the stables, and lost very fast as soon as they were 
put in the pasture. Cows tied lost heavily on pas- 
ture, and gained in milk as soon as they were put 
on green feed. We were feeding indoors against 
one of the best blue-grass pastures in the State, well 
shaded and running water accessible. Of the three 
cows put in pasture first, June 20th, when it was at 
its best, Nos, 229 and 220 were fresh cows and 244 was 



88 Soiling. 

more than an average cow. With the grain ration 
given them, they had greatly shrunken on the pasture 
by August 8th, while the three tied up for the same 
period gained considerably. The indications from 
the experiment are: that the average cow will eat 
seventy-five pounds of green food a day kept in the 
stable, with a grain ration added; that cows fed on 
oats, peas, clover, and corn, fed green in the stable in 
midsummer, will give more milk than w^hen feeding 
on a good blue-grass pasture; that a cow fed on 
green feed in stable darkened and well ventilated 
will gain in weight more than she will in a well- 
shaded pasture; that a cow will respond more 
readily to a well-balanced ration of grain while eat- 
ing green feed, than she does on dry feed. An acre 
of oats and peas cut green weighed twenty-four 
tons, and an acre of corn and oats cut green 
weighed thirty-three tons. It is not necessary to 
cut green feed oftener than twice a week, if it is 
spread to avoid heating. " 



CHAPTER IX. 
ROTATION OF SOILING CROPS. 

Laying Out the Work. 

In laying out the work it is simply necessary to 
know how many head of animals we wish to soil. 
If some are calves or yearlings, estimate about i,ooo 
lb. live weight as equal to a full-grown animal. For 
the sake of illustration, let us suppose that we wish, 
the coming season, to soil ten cows, three two-year- 
olds, four yearlings, seventeen head, equal to four- 
teen head of full-grown stock weighing i,ooo lb. each. 
The first thing we wish to know is how much land we 
will require per day, week, or month to supply the 
necessary amount of forage. The following esti- 
mate has been adopted of the land required for a full 
grown animal per day : 

Of lucern, clover, three-fourths square rod per 
day. Of barley, oats and peas, rye, wheat, millet, 
one-half square rod per day. Of corn or sorghum, 
one-quarter of a square rod per day. 

This is a fair estimate for a day's feeding on land 
in a good state of cultivation. For a beginner it 
would be well to add, say, one-fourth more in each 
case until he learns the capacity of his soil. When 
land is in a high state of cultivation, it will require 



go Soiling. 

less than the estimates first above given. No cow 
can possibly consume half a square rod of rye, bar- 
ley, oats and peas, or millet in a day's feeding, 
where there is a good strong growth. 

I cannot lose this opportunity to call your atten- 
tion to the great feeding capacity there is in an acre 
at this rate. There are i6o square rods in an acre. 
This, at one-half square rod per day, gives 320 days' 
feeding from one acre. 

It is always best to make a liberal allowance. 
There need be no waste, since any surplus may be 
cut and cured for winter forage, or, better still, 
plowed under as green manure. 

In laying out the work necessary to provide for 
fourteen head of full-grown animals, we will start 
the fall before the season we intend to begin soiling, 
and carry the work along for the year. The first 
question is to decide how much land shall be allowed 
to grow the necessary amount of forage. Fourteen 
head of cattle (consuming, say, three-quarters of a 
square rod per day) will require ten and one-half 
rods per day, or seventy-three and one-half rods per 
week ; say eighty, an even half acre. This will re- 
quire for June and July (eight weeks) four acres of 
ground. Then we add the necessary corn ground, 
two acres more for the August crop; the September 
and October crops are grown on the land from which 
the June and July crops were taken. For June we, 
therefore, sow during the autumn this six acres, 
more if possible, to rye and wheat. Wheat sown at 
the same time as rye will follow rye the next spring, 



Rotation of Soiling Crops. 91 

as it is about a week later. These seedings of rye 
and wheat should be top-dressed with manure dur- 
ing the winter. We, of course, cannot use all this 
rye and wheat next spring for soiling : at least, two 
acres of this will be plowed under in the spring, but 
it is better that the land should be growing some- 
thing during winter, as a mulch and collector of 
nitrogen, than to lay barren or fallow. Soon as 
spring opens, we plow under two acres of the four 
acres. You say, why not let it grow? Because you 
will not require it all, and because oats and peas are 
better soiling crops. But, perhaps, you do not like 
the idea of wasting the seed. Don't be alarmed. 
That $2 worth of seed has been accumulating many 
times its cost in plant food during the fall and win- 
ter. There is nothing lost, but a decided gain. 
True, the rye is only a few inches high, but the 
roots have been taking up the plant food from the 
manure spread upon the land during the winter. 
Plow it under. Now we come to an important 
question. How much of this two acres shall we 
sow to oats and peas at a time? 

One week is about as long as any soiling crop 
(corn or sorghum excepted) is at its best for soiling. 
We, therefore, sow enough every week to last a 
week. If we put in more than this at a time, we 
either have to begin cutting it before it is at its 
best, or continue to cut it after it has passed its 
best. A soiling crop is fit when the grain is well in 
the milk ; before that it is too watery, after that it 
soon becomes tough and woody. And right here,' 



92 Soiling. 

in my opinion, has been a great drawback to suc- 
cessful soiling. Men have planted too much at a 
time, and the soiler has been disappointed in the 
result. His cows have shrunken in their yield of 
milk, and no doubt many a man has thus become 
disheartened in his first attempts at soiling. 

Crops for July. 

It has been my practice to plow in the spring, and 
sow first a week's supply of barley. Barley will 
germinate at a lower temperature than oats. Fol- 
lowing this a sowing of oats and peas is . put in 
weekly. The barley and oats and peas are for July. 
The wheat and rye of last fall's sowing were for the 
later half of May, through June, until the barley or 
first spring crop is ready. 

With fourteen cows it will be necessary to put in 
half an acre a week, beginning in the spring as soon 
as the ground will permit. Saturday is usually de- 
voted to this weekly task. It is better to plow at one 
time (after the first week's seeding of barley) or as 
soon as the ground is warm enough, say an acre and 
a half. Plow deep. This will make land enough 
for three weeks' seeding of half an acre per week. 
Then let. the farm team devote every Saturday 
afternoon to fitting that half acre, and sowing the 
oats and peas. 

Of barley, sow two and one-half bushels per acre. 
Of oats and peas, three bushels per acre, half and 
half, common Canadian field peas. The one sowing 



Rotation of Soiling Crops. 93 

of barley and three of* oats and peas are depended 
upon to supply the July feeding. These four spring 
seedings I have been able to get in (in Western New 
York) during the month of April. This brings us to 
the question of supplying the 



Crops for August. 

With the last sowing of oats and peas, whenever 
it is (either a week earlier or a week later than last 
year signifies nothing. Go straight along with the 
programme), make the first sowing of corn Stowell's 
Evergreen (or some other medium-sized variety), 
and continue with corn and sorghum during the 
month of May for the August and first week of Sep- 
tember; as corn is longer in condition to feed than 
oats and peas, more can be sown at a time. I have 
never practised it, but think very highly of the idea 
of sowing sorghum in alternate rows or in the same 
row with corn. These crops may be sown on the 
land from whence came the wheat and rye cuttings in 
May. The sorghum or corn and sorghum should be 
sufficient to last through the first half of September, 
or as long as it is safe to depend upon its not being 
cut by frost. This brings us to and into 

Crops for September. 

As the barley and oats and peas are consumed in 
June, the ground they occupied is put into millet 
and barley for October (to be followed by ensilage 



94 Soiling. 

from the silo). As to the S(5wmg of millet, put in 
all the ground you can of this, and plow under (what 
is not consumed in the autumn by soiling) for rye 
next spring ; and the land that was devoted to corn 
and cut off in August is all put into rye for next 
spring. This completes the year. 

It seems as if a great many words had been used in 
describing this simple rotation. If I am at fault in 
this, I hope the reader will attribute it to my desire 
to be clearly understood. The whole thing may be 
stated in a nutshell as follows : In the fall sow rye 
to plow under for soiling crops until barley or oats 
and peas are ready. In the spring sow early as 
ground is fit to work, four or five sowings, a week 
apart, of oats and peas. The first sowing of barley 
if the spring is cold and backward. With the next 
to the last, and the last sowings of oats and peas, 
sow corn and sorghum, four or five sowings, to carry 
imtil middle of September, to be followed by millet 
and barley for late autumn. 

Oats and peas are sowed on rye plowed under in 
April, corn sown on rye plowed under in May, corn 
and sorghum sown on land soiled from during June, 
millet sown on land that rye, oats, and peas were cut 
from in July, rye sown on all corn ground cut over, 
for soiling in August and September. October ist, 
sow the balance of the land not already into rye 
for next spring, either to cut or plow under for 
soiling. 

So far a rotation has been shown independently of 
clover, lucern, or crimson clover. These were pur- 



Rotation of Soiling Crops. 95 

posely omitted, advising the soiler to work into 
lucern gradually, and as to crimson clover my own 
experience has not been successful, but others have 
been. If you will begin with the rotation given, you 
will soon find opportunities of branching out with 
the clovers. It is not advisable to depend upon 
common red clover; oats and peas are better. By 
all means, however, have a patch of lucern for the 
horses, if nothing more. The following interesting 
letter is from Mr. Charles Wolcott, Blue Hill Farm, 
Canton, Mass., June 11, 1881: 

F. S. Peer, Esq. 

Dear Sir : I have yours of the 4th and note the inquiries. 
Our practice has been to feed upon winter rye first, then oats, 
next spring rye, next millet (the golden) grown on the win- 
ter rye land. Sweet fodder corn (Stowell's Evergreen) grown 
on oat lands. Southern white fodder corn sown in drills on oat 
land and spring rye land, and, lastly, barley grown on the 
land formerly occupied by winter rye, and lastly by golden 
millet. This gives a good rotation for feeding, and with us 
always has worked well. Respecting the value of manure 
saved by soiling, my judgment is that all that is made is 
saved, for I do not believe that the manure dropped in pas- 
tures enriches the soil at all, it being mostly dried up into an 
almost insoluble cake. 

The care of my stock (now forty-eight head of milch cows) 
devolves on one man, who feeds, cleans, and waters them in 
the barn, two men to help him milk. One man and one horse 
draw the green fodder in less than half a day. We feed three 
times a day in the stanchions, where the cows stay except 
when they are turned out once a week in the yard if it is cool, 
for an hour, but never if it is hot. They much prefer the 
barn to the yard. Their health is always good, and they are 
thriftv. The quality of milk with me is about 'le same the 



96 Soiling. 



year round. The quantity is larger with me in the soiling 
season than my neighbors average. 

To conclude, I will say that I cannot see that I can afford 
to pasture my stock, as I haven't made enough money yet to 
be able to throw it away. 

Yours respectfully, 

Charles W. Wolcott. 



CHAPTER X. 
CUTTING AND GATHERING THE CROPS. 

Necessary Tools, Etc. 

My own experience in soiling twelve to fourteen 
head of cattle and four horses may be briefly stated 
as follows: The cutting was done with a D. M. Os- 
borne self-rake reaper No. 3. I began with a 
scythe, then the mowing machine, but the reaper 
was the thing, throwing it off in gavels in the best 
possible way to facilitate handling, and where it will 
wilt without drying out. Monday morning, for in- 
stance, the farm team is attached to the reaper, and 
cuts in twenty or thirty minutes enough feed to sup- 
ply the stock for two days. This reaper was used for 
three seasons for this purpose, also for cutting the 
ensilage corn. Nowadays the self -raking reaper has 
generally been supplanted by the self-binders. I 
have letters from several binder companies, saying 
that they will guarantee their machines to cut the 
green crops for soiling, and no doubt they can. It 
need not and should not be bound. The improved 
corn cutters leave little to be wished for in the 
gathering of the corn forage for soiling or ensilage, 
and the work and expense of harvesting are with 
these machines reduced to a minimum. 
7 



98 



Soiling. 



Delivering to Barn. 



A one-horse lumber wagon, truck, or half truck 
with wheels two and one-half to three inches wide 
will be found to be of great service, and will answer 




BOX FOR WAGON. 



the purpose until the number of head soiled reaches 
twenty-five or more, when a two-horse wagon with 
wide low trucks (which is also most useful in har- 
vesting ensilage fodder) will be found advisable. 

The box for the wagon I had in use for this pur- 
pose was a double one ; the upper box was put on in 
four separate pieces (two end and two sideboards) 
which projected over the sides of the main box as 
shown above. 

Feeding. 



There is but one satisfactory way of feeding soil- 
ing crops, and that is to the cattle fastened in their 
stalls. Each cow gets her share, with no running or 
chasing about. She eats what is put before her, 



Cutting and Gathering the Crops. 99 

and is satisfied. She is in the best possible position 
to be milked, and her greater comfort has already- 
been explained. 



Caution in Feeding. 

There is more danger of feeding too much at a 
time than not enough. There is no doubt but that 
here lies the reason of many discouraging results in 
soiling. Of the three great mistakes a beginner is 
apt to make, i.e., feeding soiling crops in open racks, 
sowing too much at a time, and feeding too much at 
a time, the latter is probably the greatest mistake of 
the three. 

A cow with more fodder (especially green forage) 
in her manger than she can eat up clean at the time, 
will go hungry sooner than eat it after she has 
breathed upon it for a time. This, of course, causes 
a shrinkage of milk, and is, I am sure, the reason 
why the soiling system has, in some cases, been 
condemned by some who suppose their cows abun- 
dantly provided for, when their manger stands full 
of feed. They cannot understand how it is that 
their cows do not do as well at soiling as at pasture, 
and they jump to the natural conclusion that the 
cow or cows are pining for open pasture, and if they 
turn them out, they would undoubtedly gain in milk 
for a day or so ; then they would say that their cat- 
tle do better at pasture than at soiling. The trouble 
has been that their cattle have been hungry in the 
midst of plenty. After a cow breathes on forage 



I oo Soiling. 

left in a manger for a time, it becomes very distaste- 
ful to her, while to the feeder it looks bright and 
fresh, and she gets no more, perhaps, until hunger 
compels her to eat that up. 

Whatever you do, always remove from before the 
cows all that is left in the mangers before giving 
them a fresh feed. You will be surprised some time 
to see a cow go greedily at a fresh feeding at noon, 
when you have taken from her manger what she 
failed to eat in the morning. 

If there is anything left in the manger, pass it 
over to the hogs. They will be very pleased to 
have it. 

Manner of Feeding. 

Experience has taught me that, to produce the 
best results from milch cows, they should be fed 
four or five times a day. Five feedings in my ex- 
perience have given better results than four, and just 
as good as six. 

To think of feeding cows five times a day, when 
the usual custom is to feed but twice, may seem like 
a great task, but by systematizing the work it will 
be found not nearly as difficult as one may imagine. 

Let us follow a day's work in feeding fourteen 
head of cattle five times a day, i.e., at 5 and 8 a.m. 
noon, and at 4 and 7 p.m. Enough feed has been 
delivered to the barn the evening before for the first 
morning feeding, which the cows find in their man- 
gers when they are let into the barn from the yard, 
or paddock, or orchard where they have spent the 



Cutting and Gathering the Crops. loi 

night. After breakfast the farm team is attached to 
the reaper, and in twenty minutes or half an hour 
has cut enough forage to last two days, and has gone 
on to its regular farm work. I found a boy fifteen 
or sixteen years old quite able to do the extra work 
of drawing, feeding, cleaning stables, etc. , and have 
about six or eight hours a day to devote to the regu- 
lar farm work. After breakfast the boy feeds calves, 
pigs, etc., and at 7:30 with the one-horse wagon 
goes to the field and draws to the barn the 8 o'clock 
feeding, which he delivers into the mangers from 
the wagon, and leaves upon the wagon enough for- 
age for the noon feeding. The boy is now at liberty 
to work elsewhere on the farm or in the dairy. At 
noon the forage that was left on the wagon is given 
to the cows, a work of 10 or 15 minutes. Other em- 
ployment is found for the boy until 3:30, when he 
goes to the barn, puts the horse to the wagon, and 
delivers to the cattle their 4 o'clock feeding. He 
then draws in enough forage for the 7 o'clock feed- 
ing, and the first (5 o'clock) feeding for the follow- 
ing morning. He then cleans the stables, assists 
in milking, and at 7 o'clock gives the final or fifth 
feeding to the cattle, which is quickly done. This 
ends the day, with the exception of turning the cat- 
tle out at 8 o'clock for the night. They have free 
access to water in the yard when let out for the 
night. They require no more water during the day. 
In thus relating my own method and practice in 
providing for fourteen head of dairy cows, I am well 
aware that it might not be suited in every respect to 



I02 Soiling. 

every other man's case. It is hoped, however, that 
it will give my readers a correct knowledge of the 
general principles of the system, so that those who 
may wish to adopt it will have a guide, if not an 
absolute rule. The things insisted upon as abso- 
lutely essential to success may be summed up as 
follows : 

First.— Feeding the cattle in their stalls day-times, 
turning them out at night. 

Second. — Sow every week during April, May, and 
June enough ground to supply a week's feeding only. 

Third. — Remove all forage left in the mangers 
before each fresh feeding. 

Fourth. — Feed five times a day all the cattle will 
eat. 

Fifth. — Supply perfect ventilation. Open stable 
doors at night. Keep doors and windows closed 
day-times, the latter darkened to exclude the flies. 
(But this can only be done when the barn is proper- 
ly ventilated.) 

These five rules are laid down as the cardinal prin- 
ciples. As to all the rest, use my experience as a 
guide, and better it wherever you can. Anyway, 
adopt any method that will best serve the five rules. 



CHAPTER XI. 
BARN CONSTRUCTION. 

General Plan. 

The principal requisite in the construction of barns 
for soiling summers and feeding- ensilage winters is 
to have a driveway through the barn, so that the 
soiling crops and the ensilage may be fed to the 
stock directly from the wagon into their mangers. 
If the barn is wide enough so that the cattle can 
stand with their heads toward the centre, and still 
leave room for a passage behind them, so much the 
better ; but if the cows face the walls with only a 
manger in front, the cattle may still be fed quite 
handily from a passage behind them, while the pas- 
sage may be used in carting out the manure, which, 
may be delivered direct from the stables to the field in 
one handling. This plan is preferable, unless, when 
the cows face the centre, there is still room behind 
them for a wagon drive for the manure. The ob- 
ject, of course, is the saving of labor. A barn 
thirty-five feet wide will accommodate two rows of 
cows facing the walls, and give a ten-foot drive be- 
hind, and a four-foot passage in front of them, 
whereas, if they face the centre, and there is a drive 



1 64 Barn Construction. 

behind them for manure and one in front for soiling- 
crops, the barn will require to be at least fifty feet 
wide ; although it is not quite as convenient to feed 
the cattle their soiling crops from behind, especially 
if they are fastened in stanchions, the great economy 
in building the barn thirty-five feet wide instead of 
fifty is considerable. With open mangers, the cat- 
tle may be fed from the drive behind them nearly as 
well as from in front. Therefore, it is preferable to 
have them face the wall and a drive behind them, 
especially if the number of cattle is great enough to 
deliver the manure from the trench directly to the 
field. Of course, if there are but a few, and the 
stables are cleaned by the use of a wheelbarrow, 
and a narrow passage behind, I would in this case 
recommend the cattle to stand facing the centre. A 
barn on this plan also should be at least thirty-five 
feet on the inside. This will leave a feeding pas- 
sage ten feet wide in front of the cows.. 

The next thing to be considered in the construc- 
tion of a barn is that it should be warm in winter 
and cool in summer. The best possible construc- 
tion of a barn to attain this end is to build it with 
two air spaces between the outer and inside cover- 
ings. A barn built on the most approved plan for 
keeping ice, or for cold storage, or refrigerator pur- 
poses is best to accomplish this end, i.e.^ to keep out 
the cold in winter or keep out the heat in summer. 



Barn Construction 



105 



Objections to Masonry Basements. 

■ I have had much experience with stone and brick 
wall basements, and would on no account recom- 
mend them for any kind of stock. They are, as a 




Er\<d ElevAfiorv of Bridge. 



Sccv\e.'.» 



'i" t,' o" ' ^ 3 

lul l I I 3 



I 
t I 

; I 

1 I 



rule, damp, chilly, and unwholesome, if not un- 
healthy, a great portion of the year. I am so prej- 
udiced against them, compared with double air- 



io6 



Barn Construction. 



spaced wooden walls, that I would not have one put 
under a barn of mine if it could be done without 
cost. If it is necessary to build a barn with a base- 




l5ometnc SKowirNjg^ 

Wall3 o^ Benrrv l>\ii- Spzskcea 



ment, I would recommend excavating back from 
the foundation, and driving into the upper story over 
a bridge six or eight feet long, as shown (cut, p. 105). 



Barn Construction. 



107 



M? 




of tbo^rn Wa^l 



Vertico.\ 3ectio\^ Sce^le;. 

0/ 5o.ti> WmI . hill I I ^ 



io8 Barn Construction. 

If the cattle barn is to be tinder the main barn, as is 
usually the case, or simply a shed, the method of 
constructing walls with double air spaces is as fol- 
lows: On the sill twelve inches wide, set up a two- 
by-four one inch back from flush with the outer 
edge. On this nail sheathing, on the sheathing 
building paper, over the building paper clapboards 
or novelty siding, of whatever siding is desired for 
the outside of the barn. On the inside of the two- 
by-four studding nail inch sheathing; over this 
building paper; then set up another two-by-four 
against the inside or middle lining, and on the other 
edge nail sheathing, then building paper, and cover 
with matched siding (see cuts). The idea is to get two 
dead-air spaces. The nearer airtight the spaces are 
the more perfectly the cold will be excluded in winter 
or the heat kept out in summer. An airtight air 
space is one of the best non-conductors of heat or 
cold for barn, silo, or icehouse. It is far better than 
to have the space filled with sawdust. Where lath 
and plaster is more economical than sheathing and 
building paper, it makes an equally good partition, 
dividing the two air spaces. This method of build- 
ing side walls is less expensive than stone or brick 
masonry, and when finished is so much warmer in 
winter, so much cooler in summer, so much drier, 
cleaner, airier, and more wholesome, that there is no 
comparison between the two. 

The windows should for the same reason be made 
to accommodate three sashes both for winter and 
summer. The windows, however, should be large 



Barn Construction. i 09 

and numerous, but they are never to be opened or 
,used as ventilators. This plan is for the basement. 
Above, the barn may be built in the usual way with 
single siding, unless a horse stable, calves or sheep 
pens are to occupy the upper floor, in which case their 
quarters should be surrounded with similar walls. 
Outside walls of such a construction will require no 
artificial heat in winter to keep the stable warm, a 
system that is both expensive and needless, and will 
be as cool as it is possible to have a barn in summer. 
Eight feet in the clear is enough if properly venti- 
lated. 

Ventilation. 

The next great question is that of proper ventila- 
tion. It has just been said that windows are not .to 
be used summer or winter for ventilation. It is un- 
necessary, and can be attained more perfectly in 
other ways. The question is to admit fresh air and 
to dispel foul air. My method would be as follows: 
The foul air is of two kinds, the warm air from the 
animals' bodies, which is lighter than the air and 
ascends, and the poisonous gases, which are heavier 
and stay on the floor. We must, therefore, provide 
an exit for both. The former is easily gotten rid 
of in the usual way by a ventilator in the floor of 
the ceiling to a point above the ridge by a wooden 
shaft surmounted by a cupola. Taking advantage 
of the fact that the cooler, fresh- air is heavier than 
the heated air of the stable, therefore it best sup- 
plies the exit of the latter, by coming into the stable 



I lO 



Barn Construction. 



near the floor on which the animals stand. This air 
either in winter or summer for a small stable may be 
supplied from the inside of the barn at the floor of the 
room above. The reason is that the temperature 
there is cooler in summer than if taken from the out- 
side, the coolest air in the barn above being on the 




floor. It is equally advantageous in the winter, be- 
cause no matter which way the wind is or how hard it 
blows, the air from the room above is steady and uni- 
form both in movement and temperature, that is when 
the barn doors upstairs are closed. We, therefore, 
prefer to get our fresh supply from indoors (above) 
rather than from the outside. To accomplish this, 
we may use wooden air ducts as shown above, opening 
from the floor above, and discharging in front of the 
cattle into their mangers, or near their heads so that 



B 



arn Construction. 



I U 




1 1 1 Barn Construction. 

they can get it pure. We have now provided for 
the entrance of fresh and the exit of heated and im- 
pure air, but we should still provide a place of exit 
for the impure air that is heavier than the fresh air. 
This is accomplished by an air duct opening lower 
than the entrance of the fresh air^ and must be car- 
ried by a tile duct or conductor pipes and allowed to 
discharge underneath the barn or lower than the 
barn floor, or allowed to discharge into the liquid 
manure cistern, in which case a swinging damper 
closes automatically if air attempts to enter through 
this duct from the outside. The cut (page 1 1 1) shows 
this air taken from the gutter behind the cows and 
in a tile drain discharging into the liquid manure 
cistern. This same pipe also provides an escape 
for the light foul air or gases that may rise from 
the cistern, as shown in the cut at B. This is 
simply a galvanized conductor pipe that is carried 
above the building on the principle of trapping a 
sewer pipe discharging into a cesspool. If cattle 
barns were thoroughly and properly ventilated, there 
would in all probability be less tuberculosis among 
our herds than there is at present. Pure invigorating 
air is the best of all preventives, if not a cure, to con- 
sumption in the human family; why not in cattle? 
The fresh air comes into the barn through shaft 
A^ and is conducted along on an air duct directly in 
front of the cattle, as shown, discharging into each 
manger (see page no). This air shaft in front of 
the manger comes into the stable at each end of the 
barn (as shown on page no, for a small number of 



Barn Construction. 



"3 



3ecl:iorv of 

of Automcvtic 
Vcnti loiter. 




SecMon,. /Autom&vtic Ventilc>^l"or. 



114 



Barn Construction. 



cattle, and on page 1 1 1 for a larger number) . The 
forced-air shafts should have shown the damper on 
the floor the cattle stand upon, where it may also be 




B2vrr\ wilN Aulr£>m^t\c Ventvls^rors 



regulated by hand by moving an adjustable weight 
in and out on the damper shown in the floor above. 

A good place for the exit of this carbonic-acid 
gas out of the barn is from holes along the side of the 
manure trench behind the cattle, A A, as it seeks 
the lowest level. The same ventilator B takes the 
warm, offensive air from the fresh droppings to the 
top of the building (as shown). With a large number 



Barn Construction. ii^ 

of cattle it may be found desirable to force air into the 
barn from the outside. Ventilators regulated by the 
action of the wind, with automatic check damper, as 
shown in cuts (pages 113, 114). W= E. Ho Massey, of 
Toronto, has adopted this method with great success. 

The first cut shows an automatic ventilator which 
revolves on ball bearings, and is kept facing the wind 
on the principle of a weather vane, which keeps the 
opening of the ventilator always facing the wind, 
thus forcing the fresh air down the shaft. An auto- 
matic damper in the shaft regulates the supply so 
that a wind-storm could not drive in more air than 
was needed. This automatic damper can be regu- 
lated to suit any strength of current, or closed en- 
tirely by hand. 

The draft of an outlet ventilator may likewise be 
greatly increased by making the opening always face 
in the opposite direction to the wind, as shown. 

While discussing this question of ventilation, I 
may take this opportunity to call the reader's atten- 
tion to the reason why it is particularly necessary 
that dairy cows especially should be supplied with 
a great abundance of fresh air aside from its health- 
giving properties to all animals. Milk is a product 
of the blood. Therefore, no cow can manufacture a 
large quantity of milk without first manufacturing 
a correspondingly large quantity of blood. The 
blood is made from the food the cow consumes, but 
in manufacturing a large quantity of blood a large 
quantity of pure air is required to enter the lungs of 
the animal to purify the same. So you see the re- 



Ii6 Barn Construction. 

quirements of a good dairy cow are, first, capacity 
for food, large paunch powerful machinery for di- 
gesting and assimilating the product; second, she 
requires a large lung capacity to purify the blood 
from which milk is the product. Then if she has 
a muscular jaw, heavy muscular lips for milling the 
foods, and large open nostrils for supplying a large 
pair of lungs, we have the essential machinery of a 
productive dairy cow, and the necessity of supplying 
an abundance of fresh air is apparent. 

Water. 

There is one other requirement that our barn 
must not fail to have, and that is fresh water in 
abundance. Water is the least expensive of all the 
other things that go to make up the raw material 
from which milk is made. Personally I object to 
water continually standing before the cows in their 
stalls. Ensilage and soiling crops are very watery, 
and cows are apt to get into the habit of drinking 
for want of something to do, and bowel trouble is 
the result, caused by the washing of undigested food 
past the third and fourth stomachs, causing irrita- 
tion and looseness of the bowels. Give them all 
they want to drink at a time, and at least twice a 
day, but shut it off and empty aU troughs. The in- 
dividual iron troughs are usually operated by a float, 
and the troughs stand full all the time. There should 
be some means of shutting off the supply, and empty- 
ing every trough. I have seen most of the patent 



Barn Construction. 



117 



troughs, but none of them that I know of answer 
all the requirements, flushing at drinking time, 
emptying, and keeping empty after and between 
watering times. In preference to these I must still 
recommend a trough that I used for several years 




hinged V\/5.fev- Trough tOver^ow . 

most satisfactorily. It is shown above. It is simply 
a wooden or sheet-iron trough on hinges, or not 
fastened to the opposite side of the manger. When 
not in use, it is turned upside down; nothing 
can get into it. It is thus kept absolutely clean. 
When wanted for use, it is simply turned over in 
front of the cattle and fits into notches cut in the 
partitions separating the mangers. Then it is filled 
by a faucet or a hose at one end. There is a hollow 
plug B in the trough that takes care ol the over- 



Ii8 Barn Construction. 

flow, which discharges into a two-inch drain pipe. 
The water is left running until the cows are through 
drinking. Then it is shut off and the hollow plug is 
removed ; this empties the trough. This overflow is 
at the same end as the supply faucet. When the 
trough is emptied, it is turned over until again re- 
quired. One trough to every four or five cows is 
about as long as can be conveniently managed. 
(The hinges should be of galvanized iron.) Of 
course, this requires a little more labor than where 
each cow has a separate trough that is full all the 
time, but there is a great objection against that 
method of watering cattle. There is as much bene- 
fit to be derived by having a drink of pure, fresh 
running water when wanted, as there is in having 
pure, fresh air to breathe. It is not a mere ques- 
tion of slaking thirst in the one case, or the filling 
the lungs with air in the other. It is the freshness 
of both that stimulates. 

If it is considered advisable to use individual 
water buckets, the following system of piping is 
advised, as shown on page 119. D is the inlet pipe 
from spring or tank B ; the valve E, which is gov- 
erned by a float F, that shuts off the water when 
the receiving tank is full. To water the cows 
close valve B 2 and open valve AA. Every in- 
dividual bucket bb will thus be filled to a level 
with the water in the receiving tank //, which is 
automatically shut off as soon as all the buckets 
which are set on the same level are full. When 
the cattle are through drinking, close valve A A 



Barn Construction 



119 






r\ 







^ 



<. 

<: 







f^ 



*-«:. 






-C 



tf5 

bo 

O 

i- 

(U 
-1-1 

I 

<3 
D 

> 

c 

i 

o 
x: 

(0 



X 
o 

C 

g 
o 
O 



I 20 Barn Construction. 

and open valve B 2, thus emptying all the trough 
entirely into a sewer or the liquid manure cistern, 
which, of course, we must now provide. Between 
the barn, and the discharge of the water thus 
drawn off there should, of course, be a trap, which 
trap is ventilated, as shown on page 114. This 
plan overcomes all the objections which I have 
mentioned in connection with individual water- 
ing troughs. It supplies pure, fresh water which 
is never allowed to stand or become contaminated 
by the impurities of the air. It provides for a sim- 
ple and inexpensive drainage that can never clog, 
and does away with all floats in the trough that get 
out of order. The troughs are covered with a 
wooden cover AA^ which I saw in operation in Mr. 
James Forsyth's barn at Owego, N. Y. When a 
cow wants a drink, she puts her nose against the 
cover, raises it, and helps herself. Mr. Forsyth 
assures me that the cows " catch on,'" as he ex- 
pressed it, very quickly. This keeps the trough 
always clean and free from dust. The inlet and 
discharge pipe are the same. The flow and dis- 
charge comes straight from the main pipe into the 
bottom of the trough, and is easily cleaned. A three- 
fourths-inch pipe supplies the troughs, while the main 
pipe is two to three inches, according to the number 
of cattle and length of the stable. 



Barn Construction. i2J 



Handling the Manure. 

The points we wish to study are how to build a 
barn adapted to soiling-, with the view of reducing 
the cost of labor to a minimum, which it is well to 
do in the construction of all farm buildings where 
labor for any purpose is employed. 

The question of barn construction aie to the econ- 
omy of handling the manure is a problem worthy of 
our attention. The most economical plan is to cart 
the manure directly from the stable to the field, 
and spread it broadcast in the one handling. It is 
not always convenient to do this, and at some sea- 
sons of the year the land is not in condition to re- 
ceive it. However, during the greater part of the 
year, it may be carted directly from the stable to the 
field and spread from the wagon. I believe that 
there is no more effective way of manuring the land, 
and getting the greatest good from barnyard manure, 
than to spread it broadcast on the ground as fast as 
made, either summer or winter. I have demon- 
strated this several times. A manure spreader is a 
most convenient and labor-saving machine, espe- 
cially when this system of delivering is adopted. 

My idea of a trench behind the cattle is to have it 
deep and narrow, instead of, as usual, wide and shal- 
low. A deep, narrow trench prevents cows stand- 
ing in it with their hind feet. It holds two or three 
days* droppings without soiling the cows when they 



122 Barn Construction. 

lie down. If narrow (the width of a scoop shovel 
and little more) the cows can easily step across it, 
whereas, when it is only four or five inches deep and, 
as usual, eighteen inches wide, they must step down 
and into it in getting to and from their stalls. The 
most satisfactory drop with which I ever had experi- 
ence was one sixteen inches deep, and twelve and 
one -half inches wide. 

There are some iron gratings which give satisfac- 
tion, in which case the trench is made to hold three 
or four days' or a week's droppings, so that they are 
only cleaned once or twice a week. There are no 
disagreeable odors coming from this accumulation 
of manure, the trench being ventilated as shown. 
All the warm, offensive air is drawn off, and by the 
use of a daily sprinkling of land plaster (see chap- 
ter on land plaster, page 25) as an absorbent, the 
stable is kept as pure and wholesome as a well-con- 
structed closet in a private house. Where land 
plaster cannot be obtained, road dust or dry muck 
as an absorbent is, we are told, the next best thing 
to procure. If it is desirable to clean the stables 
not oftener than once a week, the manure trench 
should be at least eighteen inches deep and eigh- 
teen inches wide, in which case, it will, of course, 
require to have an iron grating behind the cows. 
I have never had practical experience with these 
iron grates, but, from what I have seen, they could 
be improved upon by making the opening between 
the bars wider, and the bais themselves narrower 
and deeper, so that the manure in falling will go 



Barn Construction. 



123 



through. As usually constructed, the manure, un- 
less thin, lodges on the bars. Cast-iron gratings 
are recommended, not to exceed one-fourth inch in 
thickness by one inch and a half in depth (the nar- 

T 
.1 

I 

i 




Ctx^ t \ ron G rest i rvgi . 



II n n n 11 i 







3^Q.Y\or\ of Drop, 



/6 X /a 



124 Barn Construction. 

row edge up) the tipper edge rounding, and the bars 
reduced to one-fourth at the under edge, as shown. 

Some recommend flat one-inch steel bars set on 
edge, the bars three-eighths of an inch thick, and 
running lengthwise of the drop instead of crossways, 
as shown. Prof. E. W. Stewart, of Lake View, Erie 
County, N. Y. (author of a very valuable work on 
feeding animals), first introduced these "self-clean- 
ing stables." He (Mr. Stewart) recommends grat- 
ing of T-shaped steel bars, made in sections for the 
width of two or three cows ; as to size of trench, he 
says, in a circular describing these grates, usually 
sixteen to twenty-four inches deep, three feet wide. 
If built thus, this will hold droppings of a large cow 
for about four weeks. He adds, in substance, that 
stables thus provided are kept sweet, or much freer 
from disagreeable odors, than where the stalls are 
cleaned every day. He also recommends these 
stalls for pig-pens. There is, Mr. Stewart informs 
me, no patent on this appliance. Mr. James 
Forsyth, of Owego, has cast-iron grates behind his 
cows, with a trench large enough to hold droppings 
for a week, and I was never in a barn so free from 
the smell of manure. Mr. Forsyth speaks in very 
high terms of this system of handling manure as a 
labor-saving device ; especially when the manure is 
to be carted to the field in a manure-spreader, it has 
very much to recommend it. 

The trench itself had better be either of brick or 
cement, or cast iron, or, if built of wood, should be 
carefully put together with red-lead joints, or in 



Barn Construction. 



125 



some way made water-tight. We can no longer 
afford to waste the most valuable half of barn 
manure. This drop or gutter may drain into the 
liquid-manure cistern, have a hose turned into it, 
and be thoroughly cleaned after emptying. The 
gutter is easily made of concrete ; first the bottom in 
the usual way; the sides are made by filling in a 
space between two planks set on edge as shown 
below, well supported to keep from springing. 

The ditch is dug two or three inches wider than 
this space between the sides of the ditch and the 
upright plank (which plank is only used as a mold to 



%• ! • 


• . . - 


^.^ 








-l/.V'-.-r-;; : ^ -J. 




^ 


V ■ 


M 

\ 




( 

"■; 

/ 
If 


;•; 


^y^ 
















^ 'I V , ^^ ' '^ *' - ' * ' * ' V - •'•• 





be taken away when the concrete has set). The 
floor upon which the cows stand is also cemented. 
This is a little more expensive than plank, but, once 
in, it should last indefinitely. Depressions for a cast- 
iron grating to fit in level or flush with the plat- 
form the cows stand upon and the driveway behind 
them, should be provided. 



I 26 Barn Construction. 

Manure Shed. 

Where and when it is impracticable to deliver the 
manure directly from the wagon or manure-spreader 
to the field, it is quite essential that some provision 
should be made either to compost or cover it. 

A very inexpensive manure shed on a grain farm 
may be built by setting some large posts in the 
ground where the straw-stack is usually built. Saw 
the tops of the posts off level, and on them place 
timbers flattened on both sides, and on these timbers 
place poles, old rails, or boards, and on top of this 
build the straw stack. I had such a manure shed at 
my Maple Lane farm, and found it a great conven- 
ience, as it made also a splendid place to turn the 
cows in weather too bad for them to be outside. 
Three men cut the necessary timbers in my own 
woods, and completed the work in three days. It was 
about one hundred feet by eighty feet. The posts 
were sixteen to eighteen inches in diameter, and set 
about three feet deep in the ground. It answered 
the purpose beautifully, and I would never want to 
be without such an arrangement on a grain farm. 
Professor Roberts, of the Cornell University, tells 
us that the waste in manure in an open barnyard is 
from forty to sixty per cent. 

If there is a stone-wall basement under your barn, 
it can be utilized to good advantage as a manure- 
shed, for that is really, in my judgment, the best 
use for a basement of this kind. The principal ex- 
pense for such a shed is the roof. I have had con- 



Barn Construction. 1 27 

siderable experience in the different kinds of roof- 
ing, and the best and cheapest I know of is to build 
them of boards grooved and battened, the battens 
also grooved, as shown in the illustration. 



"Koof "T5odvr d^ . 

At Squawkie Hill, my present farm, I have forty- 
two box stalls for brood mares and colts, and a cov- 
ered enclosure, 22 by 120 feet, that was roofed in 
this way in 1885, and is to-day (1900) in first-class 
condition, and decidedly better than most of the 
shingle roofs put on other buildings at the same time. 
It has had but two coats of iron ore paint during 
the time, looks well, and answers the purpose beauti- 
fully. 

Liquid Manure. 

On the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, where the 
science of agriculture is better understood than any- 
where in the world, the farmer, whatever else he 
possesses, is sure to have a liquid-manure cistern. 
He thinks he cannot farm it without liquid manure, 
and he is quite right. In the States we invariably 
let all the liquid manure go to waste, and in its 
place pay out annually (in the State of New York) 
over $6,000,000 for commercial fertilizer, as already 
shown; when if the liquid manure of the farms 
through the State, that now goes to waste, was 



128 Barn Construction. 

saved, it would probably be worth as much to the 
farmers as the commercial fertilizer they now an- 
nually purchase. It is strongly recommended to 
every farmer to try and arrange some sort of cistern 
for this valuable fertilizer, just outside the barn, 
where the liquid from horses and cattle and the 
drain of the barn could be saved. There are any 
quantity of patent liquid manure-spreaders in Eng- 
land, and there will be plenty of them in this coun- 
try, when there is a demand. The Channel Island- 
ers mostly pump it into a hogshead on a two-wheel 
cart, and pull a plug to let it discharge into a wooden 
box, about 4 by 6 inches square, at the rear of the 
wagon. This box is bored full of small holes on the 
back side. After what I have witnessed on the 
islands of Jersey and Guernsey, I w^ould never again 
attempt to farm without a liquid-manure cistern. 

The Mangers. 

My experience with cattle mangers has been va- 
ried. The requirements are, first, something that 
can be easily, and quickly, and thoroughly cleaned ; 
second, there must be no corners or partitions be- 
tween cows to accumulate dirt or grain that in time 
becomes filth. The cows, we have shown, require 
plenty of pure, fresh air, and we must see that there 
is nothing accumulating under their noses to defeat 
that end. The most serviceable manger is one built 
entirely of concrete and cement, or, if made of wood, 
it must be so constructed as to make the joints water- 



Barn Construction. 129 

tight. If there is any place in the barn that should 
be kept scrupulously clean, it is the mangers in 
front of the cows, over which they must breathe 
for the greater part of their lives. 

All the partitions that are needed between cattle 
is one just large enough to keep them from hooking 
each other, or getting at each other's allowance of 
food. 

The cattle always show to best advantage in barns 
with the least possible amount of woodwork be- 
tween them. Twenty years' experience in exhibit- 
ing cattle at fairs has taught me that the most 
effective display is made in a tent where the cattle 
are simply tied to a 2 x 4 rail fastened to stakes driv- 
en in the ground, and the rail being about a foot 
above the ground, with no partition or anything be- 
tween them or about them in any way. In order to 
economize room in stables and stand the cattle 
closer together, some little barrier or partition di- 
viding the stalls is necessary. The partitions are 
three feet six inches apart. If four feet can be given 
to each cow, they will require no partition whatever, 
if fastened by a halter, or as described further on. 

In the illustration on page 130 will be found my 
idea of stall and manger with partitions. The par- 
titions are made of one and one-half and three- 
quarter inch galvanized gas pipe as shown, the ends 
imbedded in cement. A three-quarter inch pipe at 
c braces the partitions sideways. Hanging to the 
pipe 00 is a board bb that separates the mangers, 
but does not quite touch the bottom of the manger, 
9 



130 



Barn Construction. 

V 



•2 




Barn Construction. 131 

and in cleaning out the latter may be swung to one 
side, either at right angles to the position shown, or 
removed entirely by unhanging it, thus making 
a clear passage from one end of the stable to the 
other, which is thus easily flushed and cleaned by 
turning on a hose. These feed-box partitions are 
held stationary by a simple fastening, as shown at h. 
A two-inch galvanized gas pipe forms the top of 
manger. The floor on which the cattle stand may 
be thoroughly cleaned with the greatest of ease, and 
no place is left to accumulate filth. 

The platform on which the cows stand is also 
made of cement, or boards, or plank laid in cement. 
There should be no air space under the floor to col- 
lect dampness and rot the timbers. The distance 
from manger to drop, without grating, for ordinary 
sized cows, should begin at four feet six or eight 
inches at one end of the stable, and may be reduced 
to four feet at the other end, and then place the cows 
according to their size or length. With an iron grat- 
ing over the drop, the platform should be made about 
six inches shorter, so as to bring the hind feet of the 
cow onto the grating. 

Cattle Ties. 

Where economy of space is required, stanchions 
(which should always be the swinging kind — see 
illustration) enable the cattle to be put in stalls 
about three feet apart from centre to centre. 

But where pure- bred animals are kept, and it is 
desirous to make as favorable a display of them in 



132 



Barn Construction. 



the barn as possible, the stanchions are not the 
thing-. They hide the cattle too much, and they 
must be given a little more space, i. e. , three feet six 




The Swinging Stanchion. 

inches; in which case there is no simpler tie than 
a strap about the neck, which is fastened by a short 
chain to the middle of the manger. (See illus- 
tration). 

This fastening may be so arranged as to liberate 
the whole row at once, if it is desirable to do so, by 
simply pulling on a lever, operating an iron rod that 
runs the entire length of the stalls through the 
2-inch iron pipe that forms the top of the manger 
next to the cow. The next best tie is a common 
web halter. 



Barn Construction. 133 

Whatever kind of tie you decide upon, get a 
noiseless one. There are some fairly good patent 
ties. I have had most of them on trial, but they 
are either a weight on the cow's neck, and make a 
lot of noise, or take too much room. The trap is 
noiseless, light, and gives the greatest amount of 
freedom. I say noiseless ; the short chain rattles a 
little, but a rope may be substituted, or the chain 
covered with leather. 



CHAPTER XII. 
STABLE MANAGEMENT. 

Stable Management in Winter. 

In the winter time the cows are kept in nights, 
and turned out during- the daytime, when the 
weather is favorable. I protest against the princi- 
ple of keeping cows in the stable all winter without 
going out, as is being advocated by some. The 
argument is that cold requires extra fuel (feed), and 
that exercise also is at the expense of extra feed, 
and that a cow can only consume and assimilate so 
much food in twenty-four hours, and if she expends 
it in additional heat to keep the body warm, or in re- 
placing the wasted tissues or muscles by exercise, she 
will have just so much less fuel to convert into milk 
and butter. This is undoubtedly true, theoretically 
at least. But unfortunately this is not the whole truth. 
While a cow is a machine, as has been said, she is 
not an iron machine. They should most certainly 
be turned out every day during the winter that the 
weather is suitable, as an appetizer, an invigorator, 
and for the relaxation of certain muscles. But while 
it may cost a few pounds of milk in the daily yield, 
for the year it will, I am sure, be enough greater 
to make up any temporary loss. It must be borne 



Stable Management. 135 

in mind that, while a cow is a machine, she is not 
a finished machine. She is constantly rebuilding 
and repairing her body, not only in one part or par- 
ticular, but the whole system is being constantly over- 
hauled and renewed. 

That a herd of cattle may be collected and put in 
the barn, and fed there for six months or a year, 
without stepping a foot outside, summer or winter, 
can be done, and that the owner will not be liable 
to see any bad effects to the cattle themselves, is a 
fact possibly true; but it is only a question of a 
few 5^ears when that man will discover his mistake. 
The' reader's attention is called to the Havemeyer 
herd, one of the prominent dairy herds in this coun- 
try. This herd was fed continuously in the barn 
until the mistake was discovered, necessitating a 
decided outcross with animals of stamina and more 
robust constitution. If, therefore, you have anj^ re- 
spect for the future generations and would breed to 
improvement, give your dairy cows and growing 
dairy calves all the outdoor exercise they require in 
suitable weather. If the weather is bad for a week, 
keep them in for a week. Don't be a crank and 
drive them out in weather foul and fair. A cow is 
a machine, but the strength of the machinery is de- 
pendent upon health, and the ability to eat depends 
upon an appetite. Whatever you can do to keep up 
her energies and stimulate her appetite will be 
found the surest, safest, and, in the long run, the 
wisest and most economical course to pursue. 



1 36 Soiling. 



Stable Management in Summer. 

The stable management for summer is just the 
reverse of the winter method, i.c.^ during summer, 
as soon as fly time begins, that is, June ist, or be- 
fore, the windows of the barn should be darkened, 
the cattle kept in all day, and turned out in an or- 
chard or a small enclosure nights after milking, and 
admitted to the barn early next morning. During 
the night the barn doors may be left open, but they 
should be closed as soon as the cattle enter and kept 
closed all day as much as possible. You will find 
with the outside walls built as described, with two 
air spaces, that when the cool night air is shut in 
the barn the heat of the sun will have no effect 
upon it, except from the fresh air that afterward 
enters through the flues. This will not make much 
impression, as all the woodwork and floors are 
thoroughly cooled during the night, and will remain 
so to a great extent all day. 

We have now shown the advantages of soiling 
and the most convenient barn construction for pur- 
suing the system most economically. We may now 
turn our attention to the best crops for soiling. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SOILING CROPS. 

The different crops that may be used to advantage 
may be selected from the following list by the soiler, 
with reference to the nature of his soil, climate, and 
the condition of his farm, and the kind of stock 
soiled. 

I have noticed only those that have come into 
general use, and with which I have had personal 
experience, unless otherwise stated. Rye, followed 
by wheat (sown in the fall), followed by spring sow- 
ings of oats and peas, and these by sweet corn and 
sorghum, with millet, crimson clover, and barley to 
carry the stock through to ensilage. 

Rye. 

There is probably no other plant grown for soiling 
which furnishes such an abundance of food early in 
the season. It occupies the ground when no other 
crop except wheat will grow. It is less sensitive to 
cold than wheat, and its vegetation is mor^ rapid. 
It may also be cultivated longer on the same soil 
than any other crop of cereals, as it is far less ex- 
haustive to the soil. It will produce a fair yield 
where wheat will not pay the expense of growing. 



1 38 Soiling. 

The land plowed early in the spring for oats, and 
peas, and corn, and sorghum, should all be sown to 
rye the fall before, and top-dressed during the win- 
ter. It is much better that the soil should be bear- 
ing a crop, even if very late sown, so late that 
it does not even come up, than to remain fallow all 
winter, especially where the practice is to top-dress 
in the winter, which method has given me the best 
results of any, so far as the application of barnyard 
manure is concerned. Sow two bushels per acre. 

Wheat. 

In some respects wheat is a better sgiling crop 
than rye. It may be fed longer, that is to say, when 
it is more mature than rye. Rye is fit to cut 
earlier, therefore has that advantage, as well as the 
other good qualities already mentioned. But its 
fault, its only fault, I might say, is that soon after 
heading it becomes tough. An acre of wheat sown 
early to follow rye is a most excellent practice, and 
will come in handy between rye and oats and peas. 

The beardless varieties are preferable. Sow two 
bushels per acre. 

Barley. 

Barley makes a most excellent soiling crop, and 
in a cold backward spring had better be put in for the 
first spring sowing with peas, as it will stand more 
cold and grow at a lower temperature than oats. 

Barley as a soiling crop is well relished by cattle. 



Soiling Crops. 139 

Barley and peas on rich land make a most desirable 
soiling crop. 

It is also one of the best late soiling crops for 
October, sown after the first cutting of oats and 
peas, for the reason above given, that it stands quite 
a frost, and keeps on growing when oats and corn 
find it too cold. Mr. A. W. Cheever, of the " New 
England Farmer," sa3^s: "Two years' experience 
with barley for cutting in September, October, and 
November shows that it is very valuable for late fall 
feeding, as it is not much injured by frosts. Some 
of my neighbors have been cutting it this season, 
even after the ground was frozen." For this pur- 
pose, the six-rowed barley is said to withstand 
the cold better than the two-rowed variety. Says 
Mr. Flint (" Grasses and Forage Plants"), '' It has 
passed into a regular six-rowed variety, which is a 
winter grain, and endures more severe cold." 

Sow with common Canadian field peas, three 
bushels per acre, half and half. 

Oats and Peas. 

When it comes to a question of the very best soil- 
ing ration for producing the greatest flow of milk, 
there is no forage crop that, in my experience, ex- 
ceeds oats and peas. 

Sow as early in the spring as the ground will per- 
mit, and begin cutting when the oats are heading, 
and the peas have well-grown pods. Sow equal 
parts, and three bushels per acre. My practice has 



140 Soiling. 

always been to put it in with a common grain drill, 
but some advocate putting the peas in deep and 
broadcasting the oats. I cannot say as to this. I 
always had great success putting them in together 
with the drill, making one job of it. I do not see 
how it is possible to produce any better results than 
I have attained by this method. 

Oats and peas are a most excellent soiling crop for 
ewes when suckling their lambs, and when it is de- 
sirable to crowd the lambs for the butcher, they will 
be found a most excellent assistant. Brood mares 
with foal at foot can have no better treatment than 
to be put into the barn daytimes, and fed a liberal 
supply of oats and peas. I am in favor of it for 
work-horses, if they must have green food. Of 
course, there is nothing better than good timothy 
hay and oats for a horse to work on, but oats and 
peas may be fed without loosening the bowels, as is 
often the case with grass or clover. Lucern, how- 
ever, is, no doubt, quite equal to oats and peas for 
feeding horses. In feeding oats and peas to work 
horses, I prefer them well advanced, that is to say, 
the heads well formed, and the peas old enough for 
table purpose, or a little beyond that stage. In a 
letter from Mr. Crozier, of Long Island, after men- 
tioning several of the leading crops that he uses for 
soiling, he says, " I also grow that most valuable crop 
for soiling, oats and peas, one of the best crops I 
grow." 

Mr. T. Brown, in an article in " The Country Gen- 
tleman, " gives it as his experience that oats cut and 



Soiling Crops. 141 

fed green will produce the most milk of all green 
crops, and will be the greatest profit to the cheese 
factory. For my own part I look upon oats and 
peas as the staple soiling crop. Of course, later in 
the season we must resort to corn and sorghum in 
most parts of the United States, as these crops grow 
and thrive better in hot weather, and in time of 
drought. 

Iowa Bulletin, Number 19, 1892, 

Reports that up to this time they have had most 
success with oats and peas. Recommend one and 
one-half bushels of oats and one and three-fourths 
bushels of peas per acre. The peas are sown broad- 
cast and cultivated both ways. Then the oats are 
sown broadcast and harrowed each way. Work be- 
gan April 10th and cut July 7th. The three best 
varieties of peas were : 

Weighed Green. Cured. 

Rennie's No. 10 14.2 5.5 

Greenfield 142 ' 4. 2 

Egyptian 13.2 3.6 

It further says that peas and oats cut in this stage 
form one of the richest foods, especially in protein 
and fat. 

Corn. 

For soiling purposes the smaller growing varieties 
are quite large enough. My personal experience 
has been mostly with Stowell's Evergreen and " Sou 



142 Soiling. 

Fodder" and common Northern varieties of field 
corn. The principal advantage in selecting the 



m ^^ 




smaller varieties is that they are more convenient to 
handle, and more suitable for feeding whole in the 
cattle ',s mangers. 



Soiling Crops 143 

Within the last few years the introduction of ma- 
chines for the special purpose of harvesting stand- 
ing corn and ensilage fodder has placed in the 
hands of the dairyman a most valuable and labor- 
saving device, which can be heartily recommended 
to any one soiling their cattle, when the number of 
animals soiled will warrant the outlay. 

There is a variety of fodder used in the West that, 
from its description, should make a valuable variety 
of soiling, ?>. , the Pearl Flint variety. It is said to 
set from three to six ears to stalk, with medium 
growth stalk. Sow from one to one and one-half 
bushels per acre. It should be sown thicker than 
for ensilage. 

The most convenient way of planting is with a 
grain drill rigged to drop a kernel every four to 
six inches, and in rows from twenty-eight to thirty- 
five inches apart. That is, providing the drills of 
the seeder are the usual width, that is, seven 
inches. If eight inches, the rows should be twenty- 
seven or thirty-two inches apart. If a drill is not 
geared to drop the required number by allowing 
one tube to run, two or three feeds can be run into 
one of the cast shoes by simply taking the rub- 
ber tubes from their respective shoes, and letting 
them discharge into one shoe or drill. An eleven- 
hoed drill is the most convenient for this purpose, 
and usually the proper gearing can be had to sow 
the desired amount from the discharge of single 
tubes. In an eleven-hoed drill, let Nos. 2, 6, and 10 
drills discharge. This will plant three rows at a 



144 Soiling. 

time, twenty-eight inches apart. If it is thought 
best to plant thirty-five inchesa part, let Nos. 3 and 
8 discharge ; in each case the wheel of the drill will 
answer for a guide in the return bout. When sown 
broadcast, the leaves stop short of full develop- 
ment, the stalk is weak, and liable to be thrown 
down by storms, and has not the strength to right 
itself. It is hardly necessary to add that the ground 
should be well manured and cultivated. Mr. Har- 
ris Lewis says that he has found Stowell's Ever- 
green sweet corn makes the richest milk of all the 
plants he has tried. 

Sorghum. 

My experience in growing sorghum for a soiling 
crop has been so satisfactory that I can heartily 
recommend it to any one wishing to try it. It has 
biit a single fault. It is slow at starting. In 1878 
several farmers, including myself, became inter- 
ested in the question of growing sugar cane (sor- 
ghum) which w^e had made into . syrup. 1 had 
planted about an acre, but it did not seem to germi- 
nate, and I bought seed for as much more. To my 
surprise the former planting came on all right, and 
I had twice as much as I cared to have made into 
syrup, and the result was that we tried it as a soil- 
ing crop, and found that the cows not only ate it 
with great relish, but that they made a slight in- 
crease in the flow of milk. Subsequently I made a 
practice of sowing it yearly, and have strongly ad- 



Soiling Crops. 14^ 

vocated its use ever since. I have seen it claimed 
that three and four cuttings could be made from the 
one seeding in a season, but I have never been able 
to obtain more than two, and the last two years I 
used this second growth to plow under, sowing the 
ground to rye for the next spring's crop. This, I 
believe, is one of the advantages of the crop, that 
the seed grows the first crop for the cattle and the 
second crop for the land the same season, followed 
by rye for the first cutting next spring. This gives 
two soiling crops and one green manure crop upon 
the same land in a single season. Sorghum, when 
once established, will flourish during a drought in 
which corn comes to a standstill. Some recommend 
drilling it in with corn, or in alternate rows with 
corn. I should think this would be a very good 
idea. 

It is possible, no doubt, that in the Southern 
States, where the seasons are longer, and where land 
is in a high state of cultivation, it might produce 
two crops or even three as claimed; and as it is 
a comparatively new soiling forage, I submit the 
following reports from experimental stations and 
from newspaper articles on the subject. Sow in 
drills to cultivate same as corn, as it starts slowly. 
It is better to plant on sod, thus preventing weeds 

getting the start of it. 
10 



146 Soiling. 



Sorghum Reports. 

Georgia Bulletin, Number 13, 1891. 

" This class of plants, as shown by the analysis, is 
highly nutritious. Three or four cuttings can be 
obtained during one season, outyielding almost any 
other forage plant. The seed, of which the stock 
produces an abundance, compares favorably with 
corn as a food. The sorghum will stand a dryer 
season than the corn. When corn rolls or the plants 
are drooping or standing still, the sorghums are lit- 
tle affected, but continue to grow and yield good re- 
turns in fodder and grain, so that they are even 
more reliable as a soiling crop than corn. They are 
greatly relished by all farm animals, green or cured; 
and it is claimed that the milk and butter as well are 
improved in quality and quantity when fed to milch 
cows. A little more care should be exercised in at- 
tempting to cure sorghum than corn, as it heats 
easily when in too large shocks. The best plan is 
to cut it, and let it lay on the ground and wilt, tying 
in small bundles and shocking it by setting the. 
bundles so as to support each other like shocks of 
wheat. 

" It is sown in drills and cultivated the same way as 
corn. The first cutting should be done before the 
stalk flowers. It should be thoroughly cultivated 
between each cutting. Level culture is best, in 
drills or hills, the same as corn. Animals prefer 



Soiling Crops. 



147 



sorghum to any other article of forage diet. Con- 
sidering its ability to grow in the hottest and driest 
weather, and that three and four cuttings with one 
planting can be obtained on rich land, there is no 
plant for soiling which can equal or surpass sor- 
ghum in the production of milk. Yellow orange is 
given as the best sorghum, containing the largest 
proportion of dry matter per acre." 





First 
Cutting. 


Second 
Cutting. 


Third 

Cutting. 


Total. 




Green. 

22,464 
18,760 
18,928 
24,960 
23,472 


Dry. 


Green. 

13,728 
10,054 
16,640 


Dry. 


Green. 

8,320 

7,072 

16,224 


Dry. 


Green. 


Dry. 


Link's hybrid 

Early orange 

White Mile 

Bennett's prolific. . . . 
Brazilian 


2,57Q 
2,392 
2,204 
7,072 
6,489 


1,996 
1,788 
2,704 


1,664 
1,289 
2,579 


44,512 
37,336 
51,792 


6,239 
5,169 
7,487 







Starts slowly. 



Kansas Bulletin, Number 18, 1890, page 175. 

"The problem is complicated in Kansas by the 
uncertainty of rainfall, and by its unequal distribu- 
tion. Corn is the universal forage plant in the 
West, and in good seasons it is doubtful if anything 
better can be grown, but for the greater part of 
Kansas it is too uncertain to be depended upon to 
furnish the necessary forage, owing to drought in 
July and August, and uncommonly early killing 
frosts." 



14B Soiling. 



Non-Saccharine Sorghums. 

This class of sorghums is, as a rule, a generous 
grower, producing in good seasons a heavy )aeld of 
leafy and palatable feed, which compares very fa- 
vorably with corn fodder. In dry seasons these 
sorghums have the advantage over corn that they 
are not affected by drought to the same degree. In 
continued dry weather, they will remain nearly sta- 
tionary, but when rain does come they again pick 
up and push ahead vigorously, whereas corn, when 
once stunted, never recovers. They will also make 
a better growth on poor land than corn can do, and 
under the combination of a dry season and on poor 
land, where corn will be a complete failure, these 
sorghums may still give a fair crop. 

The non-saccharine sorghums are as a class heavy 
yielders of seeds, and the seeds compare very favor- 
ably with corn in its composition and feeding proper- 
ties. 

Plant in drills; cultivate same as corn, three feet 
apart in rows. 

Kansas Bulletin, Number 18. 

*' Corn and sorghum, in alternate rows and in the 
same row, gave best results in the latter case. The 
theory is that plants with different habits of growth 
and feeding powers produce a heavier growth by 
planting together than separately," 



Soiling Crops. 149 



Arizona. 

Sorghum and alfalfa supplement each other, each 
supplying what the other lacks to make a good cattle 
food. 

Eds. Country Gentleman: In the suggestion to W. L. , 
page 206, who wishes to try soiling, there is nothing said 
about sorghum, and yet it is without question the best soiling 
crop, yielding food rich and palatable and which can be cut in 
two months from sowing the seed, and is in its prime in less 
than three months. It has the property of enduring drought 
beyond any valuable plant that I am acquainted with, and it 
is eaten absolutely without waste. Besides, it has so much 
the nature of grass that its quality is not impaired by thick 
planting, as is corn. If W. L. will try a plat of it this year I 
predict that he will never go through a summer again without 
it. When you find a crop that will furnish full feed for six 
cows a day from a square rod, you will realize the value of 
soiling crops ; and I have done this with sorghum repeatedly, 
grown without any cultivation. W. F. Brown. 

Kaffir Corn (Non-Saccharine Sorghum). 

We have read more or less concerning this variety 
of forage, and I have taken considerable pains to as- 
certain its real value compared with Stowell's Ever- 
green and sorghum. It is a corn with similar habits 
to the saccharine sorghums. The following article 
appeared in the " Breeder's Gazette," and as it pro- 
duces such strong evidence of the value of Kaffir 
corn, I publish as much of the article as pertains to 
its value as a soiling crop : 



150 Soiling. 



Kaffir Corn as a Substitute for Indian Corn. 

" The saccharine sorghums, after being subjected 
to thorough tests through a long series of 5^ears, 
have been accorded a high place among the forage 
plants of America. In one respect, however, the 
sugar sorghums did not meet the requirements of the 
central and western trans-Missouri country. The 
requirements were these : 

" I. A plant with great drought-resisting powers. 

"2. A plant cheaply grown, cheaply harvested, 
cheaply cured, and cheaply fed. 

'* 3. A plant which would be practically a substi- 
tute for corn in the production and value of grain. 

" The sugar sorghums meet all these requirements 
except the last. As a purely forage plant it stands 
without a rival. 

"What is needed in the trans-Missouri country, in 
addition to the sweet sorghums, is a plant which has 
all the staying qualities of the former, but which 
exerts its energies in the production of grain high 
in quality and quantity. Such a plant would come 
nearer a substitute for Indian corn than the sugar 
sorghums, and the two together would supplement 
each other, and combined would meet all the re- 
quirements for feed in the trans-Missouri country. 
This kind of a plant Kansas farmers believe they 
have discovered in Kaffir corn. 

" Kaffir corn is one of the many varieties of the 



Soiling Crops. 151 

non-saccharine sorghums, and one which has forced 
its way to the front and scored a decided victory 
over all other members of the same family. Its 
chief competitors for supremacy were rice corn, 
Milo maize, and Jerusalem corn. After a fair and 
thorough test at the Kansas Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, and on the great experimental 
grounds of Central and Western Kansas, over a pe- 
riod of fifteen years or more, all competitors practi- 
cally withdrew from the field, and Kaffir corn wears 
the laurels. The more farmers become acquainted 
with it and with the manner of its behavior in times 
of a crisis, the more they appreciate its high quali- 
ties. Here is an object-lesson given on my own 
farm : It was necessary last spring to replant a por- 
tion of the area planted to corn, which was done 
about May 20th. About the same time fourteen 
acres of Kaffir corn were planted. The late-planted 
corn was practically ruined by the excessive heat 
the latter part of August, while the Kaffir went 
through practically unscathed and yields over thirty 
bushels per acre. In times of heat and drought it 
bravely holds up its head, and for the time being it 
stands still. With its beautiful green foliage it 
seems to defy the unmerciful fiends in the red-hot 
air, and when King Sol begins to relent, and gra- 
cious showers fall, it moves serenely on as though 
nothing had happened. Such is Kaffir corn, and 
these are the qualities which commend it to the 
trans-Missouri farmer." 



152 Soilii: 



Millet. 

This is doubtless one of the most nutritious green 
forage plants that is used in soiling cattle, as may 
be seen by reference to the foregoing tables. As a 
green manure it also ranks first, containing twenty 
pounds of nitrogen and seventeen pounds of potash 
to the ton. It germinates and grows very rapidly, 
and endures drought remarkably well. It is a very 
leafy plant, and furnishes the most succulent food, 
which is highly relished by all kinds of stock. It is 
said to flourish in somewhat higher and dryer soil 
than other grasses, but it attains greatest luxuriance 
in soil of medium constancy and well manured. It 
is usually sown broadcast, requiring one bushel of 
seed per acre, or grown as hay, which can be done 
after a soiling crop of rye, oats, or peas. It makes 
one of the best rations according to analysis to 
feed in connection with ensilage for a winter feed 
that can be mentioned. I have grown it several 
times as hay in this manner, and like it very much. 
Another advantage, and by no means a small con- 
sideration, is that it is such a grand substitute for 
hay, and can be grown on the same ground after 
a crop of hay the same season, or, as above stated, 
after a spring or early summer soiling crop, and 
then followed by a crop of rye. The same land that 
will produce one ton of hay per acre will produce 
at least three tons of millet, and in a favorable sea- 



Soiling Crops. 153 

son and on good, rich soil, a much larger yield. 
The best crop of millet I ever raised was after a 
crop of clover, and when the hay was gone we sub- 
stituted millet for the noon ration, with ensilage 
morning and night. To my surprise the cows did 
.equally as well on it as on the clover hay, and it pro- 
duced twice as much feed per acre as the clover. I 
have also grown some grand crops of millet after 
oats and peas, simply cultivating the ground and 
sowing the seed, harrowing, etc. It wants to be cut 
before the heads are in " the dough. " When allowed 
to stand until the seeds are fully ripened, the stalks 
are rather tough and woody. It may be sown as late 
as July. One bushel of seed per acre, broadcast, and 
harrowed and rolled. 

Clover. 

The principal reason why clover has not been 
more extensively used as a soiling crop is that, 
while it is very valuable, there are other crops used 
instead, which produce two, four, or six times as 
much per acre, and yet are not so valuable for hay. 
It is much cheaper to cut the feed for fourteen cows 
from five or six rods per day, than to cut it from 
ten, twenty, or thirty rods. "One acre of clover," 
says Mr. H. Lewis, " will feed a dairy of forty-five 
cows fifteen days," and he adds that three acres fur- 
nishes his herd of thirty-eight cows by soiling five 
weeks. Mr. E. W. Stewart says: "Desiring to 
know the feeding capacity of an acre of clover, I 
measured off forty square rods, and I began feeding 



154 Soiling. 

it to seven cows and five horses. To my surprise it 
fed them fifteen days, equal to feeding one cow i8o 
days. The two succeeding years I tried the same 
experiment, feeding only cows, one of which proved 
equal to feeding one cow 170 days, the other 165." 

LucERN OR Alfalfa. 

My experience with growing lucern was at first 
most discouraging, and, finally, most satisfactory. 
In 1877 I rnade a trial of an eighth of an acre with 
another crop on land near the barn, but it turned 
out to be such a foul piece of land, and the weeds 
were so much in the majority, that in the last of Jiily 
I sowed the piece to buckwheat to subdue the weeds. 
I found it a shy plant at starting, and that on this ac- 
count I had made a great mistake in plowing in the 
spring and top dressing with stable manure, which 
itself was, no doubt, full of weed seeds. I was de- 
termined, however, to have a patch of lucern. I 
cultivated the lucern patch and sowed it to buck- 
wheat, increasing the amount of land to an acre. 
The buckwheat came on well and did the weeding 
thoroughly. That fall I plowed as deep as possible, 
deeper than ever before, and sowed the piece to 
rye. This rye crop I plowed under in the following 
spring, and fitted the ground with great care by 
cultivating and harrowing, until I had a seed-bed fit 
for a garden, and sowed twenty pounds of good fresh 
seed per acre. I felt certain that only a small por- 
tion of my first seeding germinated. Here, I be- 



Soiling Crops. 155 

lieve, has been a source of discouragement to many 
others in attempting to raise lucern. Dealers in 
the Eastern States had little call for it at that time, 
and still, for that matter, they order a few bags at a 
time. This time I sowed the seed with a light seed- 
ing of barley, and cut the barley for a soiling crop. 
The lucern was just at a stage where it came on 
with a rush, and my seeding was a success. I never 
weighed the amount per acre, as I have often wished 
I had, but the second year I obtained three cuttings 
from it. That, I am sure, gave me more forage than 
from any other acre I ever had in soiling crops. The 
soil was a deep gravelly loam. 

Lucern is somewhat more difficult to cure than 
clover. But as a soiling crop to feed in connection 
with corn, it has no superior. Corn, as will be seen 
on page 12, is very deficient in albuminoids, and 
requires bran, shorts, pea meal, linseed, or cotton- 
seed meal to supply the deficiency ; but green corn 
or ensilage, fed with lucern or Hungarian millet, 
makes a good ration. The two fed together make 
the most desirable combination that can be grown. 
Its ability to withstand great drought, owing to the 
great depth to which its roots go for food, and its 
tremendous yield per acre of most succulent and 
nutritious forage, make it second to none as a soiling 
crop. One seeding will last for years. It is a crop 
that answers well to liquid manure. 

Where land is suitable for it, it should be given 
the first place in the list of soiling crops. It is fit 
to cut in the spring, nearly as soon as rye. 



1^6 Soiling. 

Requirements : 

1. Fresh, clean seed. 

2. Thorough preparation of soil after buckwheat 
or a hoed crop, and a well pulverized seed bed. 

3. Any soil with porous subsoil, which must be so 
open and so located as not to have standing water 
either on top or in subsoil. With these requisites 
and a good start success is assured. I am so 
sanguine of its proving a success under the above 
conditions that I quote at length the following, 
confirming my own experience, and showing even 
much better results: 



Alfalfa or Lucern. 
United States Bulletin. 

" Grows in every State in the Union where condi- 
tions of the soil are favorable. As a soiling crop, it 
has no superior. From three to four cuttings a year 
can be obtained. 

" It is not a new plant by any means. A native 
of Western Asia, and, says Jared G. Smith in United 
States Bulletin No. 31, was introduced into Greece 
at the time of the Persian war, about 470 b.c. From 
Italy it was introduced into Spain and the south of 
France. It was carried into Mexico at the time of 
the Spanish invasion, and thence to the west coast 
of South America. It was brought from Chili to 
California in 1854, and from there it rapidly spread 
over the arid regions of the^ Pacific Coast and the 



Soiling Crops. 157 

Rocky Mountains, where it is now cultivated almost 
to the exclusion of other forage plants. 

" Alfalfa is a deep feeder. The tap roots descend 
to great depths wherever the soil is loose and per- 
meable, often averaging ten to twelve feet. It has 
been recorded as sending its roots to the depth of 
fifty and sixty-six feet. 

" When the stems are cut or grazed off, the stalk 
dies down to the very base, and new buds spring 
up on the upper part of the crown of the new root 
and grow, forming new stems. This method of 
growing explains why so many farmers have re- 
ported that alfalfa is injured or destroyed by con- 
tinuous close grazing. Prime condition for success 
is that the land be well drained. Twenty to twenty- 
five pounds of seed per acre broadcast. Fifteen to 
twenty pounds in drills." 

Nebraska Reports, i, 1892. Article IX. 
"In the fall of 1892, during the prolonged and 
severe drought, it was the onl}' green plant of the 
whole list, notwithstanding the fact that the spring 
was very dry. It grew nicely, and during the year 
made growth as follows: 

1892 — First cutting, twenty-six inches, June 29. 

Second cutting, twenty-six inches, August 2. 
Third cutting, twenty-six inches, September i. 

Hay, Pounds. Per Acre. 

1893 — June clover 473 2,365 

Mammoth clover 475 2,375 

Alfalfa, first cut 816 4,080 



158 Soiling. 

First cutting hay, 816 lb. ; second cutting hay, 805 lb.; third cut- 
ting hay, 743 lb.; fourth cutting estimated, 180 lb. ; a total for one- 
fifth acre of 2,544 lb., or 12,720 lb. per acre, or six and a half tons 
of good dry forage. 

"What plant can we grow that will, without special 
care, give greater or even equal returns of good pal- 
atable forage? 

*' It has succeeded in Southern California and 
Mexico, where it has been a godsend to those people 
who needed some permanent and reliable forage 
plant that could withstand prolonged heat and 
drought. It goes to a great depth in search of 
moisture. Roots have been known to reach the 
depth of twenty feet or over. It is a very nitro- 
genous plant, collecting, it is believed, the nitrogen 
of the soil through a bacteria that works at the roots, 
and is ever present in the soil. It is, therefore, a 
great renovator of the soil, and a great accumulator 
of the most desirable, most expensive plant food, 
nitrogen. 

" Sown as early as possible after frost. Land 
should be in excellent condition. Fifteen to twenty 
pounds of good, fresh seed per acre. That of the 
previous year's growth should always be obtained if 
possible. Sow in drills or broadcast. Never sow 
with another crop expecting good results, or with a 
very small amount of grain, one-half to one-fourth 
bushel of oats or rye or wheat per acre. Cut early 
together with all weeds. . 

" Keep stock off the field during the first year and 
first part of the second year. If conditions are fa- 



Soiling Crops. 159 

vorable, you should have a fine stand. Tons upon 
tons are being cured for hay, and are being fed to 
cattle and to other stock. 

" Food Values : The value of any food depends 
largely upon two substances present in varying 
quantities. They are the proteins and the nitrogen 
free extract. The former is a flesh or muscle pro- 
ducer, while the latter is of the fat-producing order. 

" Objections : Not easily established. Cannot be 
pastured first year. 

"Advantages: When once established, does not 
run out. Stands drought better than clover. 
Grows rapidly, makes muscle rather than fat." 



Soiling vs. Pasturing. 
United States Report. 

" Alfalfa is one of the very best soiling crops. It 
may be fed in this way to better advantage than if 
the stock are pastured on the field. Cattle and 
sheep cannot be safely pastured on alfalfa, particu- 
larly when it is young and tender, or after there has 
been a heavy dew or rain. They are always liable 
to bloat if fed with green or wet .alfalfa. Horses 
and hogs are not affected in this way. The loss of 
sheep and cattle from tympanitis, hoven, or bloat, 
as it is called, is very great every year, and, though 
a herd may go through an entire season without 
loss, it is never perfectly safe to permit it to depas- 
ture the alfalfa. By a proper arrangement of the 
feeding pens and corrals alongside or near the field, 



i6o Soiling. 

the method of soiling — that is, mowing the alfalfa 
and feeding it in a partially wilted state — is a cheap 
and perfectly safe one. The additional cost and 
labor of cutting the crop, and hauling it to the 
feeding pens, will be less than the loss that will be 
sustained if several head of stock die of bloat during 
the season. Young horses will make a very rapid 
growth if pastured on alfalfa, especially if supple- 
mented by the daily addition of a small feed of oats. 
One of the disadvantages of depasturing alfalfa is 
that the soil soon becomes trampled and hard, and 
for this reason the roots are not able to make a 
sufficiently strong growth, and the field is sure to 
deteriorate." 

Alfalfa for Hogs. 

" One acre of alfalfa will furnish forage for from 
ten to twenty hogs per season. There is no cheaper 
or better way of producing pork than to allow grow- 
ing pigs to run in a field of alfalfa. At a conserva- 
tive estimate, ten pigs per acre will gain a hundred 
pounds each during the season from May to Septem- 
ber, and i,ooo lb. of pork cannot be produced so 
cheaply on any other feed. The pigs will come out 
of the field in autumn in capital condition to fatten 
with corn or small grain. The alfalfa in a hog pas- 
ture should be mowed once or twice during the sum- 
mer, or whenever it commences to get hard and 
woody. This will provide plenty of young and ten- 
der herbage, which is more nutritious, weight for 



Soiling Crops. i6i 

wei^rli^, than forage from the older plants, and if the 
s\viiie are provided with this food in its most nntri- 
tiuiis condition, their growth will be most rapid. 
They need to be provided with an abundance of 
fresh or running water in their pastures. This for- 
age plant responds quickly to manuring; no other 
fodder plant responds more promptly to extensive 
cultivation. Yet it is not advisable to apply stable 
manure when preparing the ground. Such manure 
is always full of weed and grass seeds that have not 
been digested, and which are really in better condi- 
tion to grow than seed scattered naturally in the 
field." 

Alfalfa Forage for Milch Cows. 

New York Experimental Station, 13th Annual Report. 

" The importance of feeding leguminous crops has 
led to many inquiries concerning the value of alfalfa 
as forage for milch cows, for the alfalfa is much 
liked by the cattle and other animals and contains 
an usually large proportion of nitrogenous constit- 
uents. The rapid growth of the plant, which can 
be cut three times during the season, and often four 
times, makes it especially worthy of consideration 
where soiling methods are practised. 

" A few of our farmers have grown good crops of 

alfalfa successfully for several years, but it does not 

seem suited to some sections of the State. Alfalfa 

has grown well on the station farm, although the 

soil is a rather heavy clay. A field of alfalfa of 2. 28 
II 



l62 



Soiling. 



acres, sown in 1890, yielded this season (1894) for 
the first two cuttings — the first during- June, and 




Alfalfa Seedling, 6 weeks old. 



Soiling Crops. 



163 



the second about August ist — at the rate of 24,500 
lb. of green forage per acre. On account of very 




Alfalfa, 3 j^ears old. 



164 Soiling. 

severe drought, the third cutting was very light, 
and only part of the field was cut for the fourth 
time. Another field of alfalfa of 1.3 acres, sown in 
1893, yielded at the rate of 38,500 lb. of green for- 
age per acre, as the total for four cuttings. The 
last two cuttings were very light on account of 
severe drought. The first two cuttings, from May 
ist to 31st, and from July 9th to 29th, yielded at the 
rate of a little over twelve tons of green forage per 
acre. These fields had been steadily cropped and 
not well manured for some years before sowing to 
alfalfa, and were not in condition to produce heavy 
crops. 

" The palatability of alfalfa or of corn (maize) is 
greater than that of most other forage plants of 
rapid growth that yield heavy crops. This is a mat- 
ter of the greatest importance, for while the milk 
may be temporarily produced at the expense of loss 
in the weight of the animal, the flow of milk must 
be sustained by the food taken in excess of that 
necessary for maintenance. 

" In order to check the growth of weeds, a mowing 
machine can be run over the field of young alfalfa 
with the cutting bar raised, so as to avoid cutting 
near the crowns of the young plants." 

Crimson Clover. 

My personal experience with crimson clover is 
limited to two seasons' trials. The first trial was 
not successful. No doubt it is a most valuable 



Soiling Crops. 165 

plant, and that as an autumn soiling crop it is most 
desirable. Besides its value to the soiler as a forage 
crop, it is a most excellent crop to follow after the 
soiling crops up to the middle and end of August, 
both to feed and to be plowed under for a crop of 
rye. It is safe to say that $10 worth of crimson 
clover seed sown in July will, under favorable con- 
ditions, grow more fertilizer delivered bn the spot 
than can be bought in any commercial form for 
$100. The soiler soon learns to take advantage of 
all these things. It is claimed that in warmer 
climates than Western New York, it may be sown 
in the autumn for early spring feeding, and will be 
ready to cut earlier than red clover. 

Our knowledge of its proper use, and the proper 
way of handling it, needs experience, nothing more. 
The following is from "The Country Gentleman," 
written by Mr. G. T. Powell, and gives such practi- 
cal and valuable information on the subject as fol- 
lows: 

Crimson Clover — How to Use It. 

"There has been much discussion over crimson 
clover, and much condemnation and disappointment 
in its use in the Northern States. That there is 
large value in it is beyond all doubt, but the plant 
must be used right and with knowledge of its re- 
quirements. 

" There are five known varieties of scarlet clover 
(Trifolium incarnatum) grown in Europe. These 



1 66 Soiling. 

differ largely in their character of growth, the fifth 
having a white blossom, and makes but a feeble 
growth in our climate. There is an Egyptian 
clover, the seed of which closely resembles the scar- 
let, and it will not withstand freezing. The seed is 
imported and many have doubtless purchased it, 
and failure following, crimson clover is condemned. 

" It is an annual, grows best in a cool season, and 
should be sown only for autumn growth. The ob- 
ject in growing this plant should be to improve the 
soil by the nitrogen that it will gather from the 
atmosphere, to keep the soil covered, especially dur- 
ing the winter, save the loss of nitrate, and to add 
organic matter or humus so much needed in the soil 
of all our older States. 

" For two years we have had nearly seventy acres 
of crimson clover, with entire success. Ten pounds 
of seed per acre will make a heavy covering. The 
seed should be put on all cultivated and autumn 
gathered crops. We sow with buckwheat freely 
first. After the buckwheat is cut it grows until 
winter, making an abundance of plant food for oats 
the following spring. In the last cultivation of corn 
and potatoes, about July loth, the seed is applied 
and cultivated in. Cultivation in the apple, pear, 
and cherry orchards is stopped near July 15th. Seed 
is applied upon all these. Vineyard culture ceases 
by July 20th, when they are seeded. . . . 

" Crimson clover should not be sown in the North 
with the expectation of its coming through the fol- 
lowing spring, while it will o ccasionally, but with 



Soiling Crops. 167 

continued freezing and thawing it will be largely 
killed. . . . 

The New Jersey Experiment Station has shown 
by analysis that ' a crop of this clover six inches 
high has accumulated nitrogen per acre that would 
cost $15 to buy; at thirteen inches high, $25.50 to 
buy per acre, while at full maturity it is worth $30 
per acre.' 

" The following are some of the points to be kept 
in mind in sowing crimson clover for the North : Get 
home-grown seed, not imported, sow early in July, 
and depend upon growth only up to December. 
Sow only with the object to improve the soil; sow to 
keep down weeds, and for a winter covering to the 
soil. The better the previous cultivation, the 
greater will be the growth. It is adapted to all 
kinds of soil, but especially to sandy soil. If the 
soil is rather poor, apply 250 lb. of muriate of pot- 
ash per acre to give it a more vigorous start. If 
farmers will study this plant, and use it judiciously, 
it will be the cheapest way possible to build up run- 
down land. Nitrogen, the most expensive plant 
food, need not be purchased, only potash and phos- 
phoric acid occasionally, thus saving much of the 
present heavy outlay for commercial fertilizers. 

" The possibilities for improvement by the use of 
crimson clover are far greater than farmers realize. 
It must not be condemned on one or two trials when 
red clover has failed in many places for the past 
twenty years." 



1 68 Soiling. 



Delaware Station, Third Annual Report, page 151. 

" An analysis to determine its feeding value com- 
pared with wheat bran. It took 5.8 tons of crimson 
clover g-reen to make one ton air-dry. And one 
ton air-dry crimson clover gave : 

Crimson Clover. Wheat Bran. 

Crude fat $6.06 $6. 16 

Crude proteins 5. 86 5.48 

Carbohydrates S.98 8.41 

$20.90 $21.05 

" Seed : An average of from nine to ten bushels 
per acre is not unusual. Clover two tons per acre 
leaves four tons of roots in the ground." 

Cow Peas. 

South of the Mason and Dixon line the cow pea is 
becoming one of the most valuable of plants for soil- 
ing, and especially for plowing under for green 
manure. I have witnessed some of the most mar- 
vellous results from plowing under a crop of cow 
peas in North Carolina. I feel safe in saying that it 
is a saving of hundreds of thousands of dollars in 
commercial fertilizers in that State alone ; and when 
thoroughly understood will be an annual saving of 
millions to the Southern farmer. 

It grows even as far north as Lake Ontario. My 
own experience with it is limited to two trials on very 
poor, wornout land; and while I was not able to 



Soiling Crops. 169 

grow much of a crop, it probably did as well as any- 
thing would on that particular ground. Since visit- 
ing some enterprising farmers in North Carolina, 
who are large growers of the plant, I am thoroughly 
convinced that, for the South at least, there is not 
at hand another forage crop that can be called its 
equal. In order to grow the first crop on exhausted 
land, barnyard manure or commercial fertilizer 
would be a great assistance. The following extracts 
in substance are sifted from the Georgia State Bul- 
letin^ No. 29, 1894: 

" It is really not a pea, but a bean. Clover of the 
South, king of land renovators. More valuable to 
the Southerner than clover to the Northerner, 
Draws nitrogen from the atmosphere. Grows on 
light soil. 

Result: The best disposition of the crop was to 
convert the vines into hay or ensilage. There was 
little gain in plowing under the whole crop green, 
or plowing under the stubble. That it stands to- 
day at the head of all soil renovators, at least for the 
South, is beyond question. 

" Cow peas will grow on land that is so impover- 
ished that clover will not grow. It has been proved 
to do well in the North, in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, 
and Ohio, and in New York and Connecticut. A 
crop of 16,000 lb. of green vines per acre is reported 
from Connecticut. It is certainly worthy of trial as 
a renovator, even if the seed is yearly obtained from 
the South. Best for hay or soiling or ensilage are 
the erect varieties, Unknown, Clay, and Whippoor- 



I JO Soiling. 

will. Where a dense mass of vines is wanted to re- 
main all winter on the ground, Calico, Gourd, Black, 
and Constitution are preferable. 

" The roots of these plants penetrate deep into the 
soil, like lucern, drawing their food from beyond the 
reach of most other plants, keeping the soil porous, 
and above all their power to assimilate nitrogen, the 
most costly of all plant foods from the atmosphere 
(four-fifths of the weight of the air is nitrogen), not 
through the leaves of the plant, but through the 
bacteria that have their seat in the root tubercles 
through which the free, atmospheric nitrogen is as- 
similated. Nor is this all. The dense foliage pre- 
vents the soil from baking. The roots and stubble 
alone of an acre of average cow peas contain 22.6 
lb. of nitrogen, 5.9 lb. phosphoric acid, and 14.5 lb. 
of potash." 

Two bushels per acre is about the amount of 
seed, usually sown. The beauty of this and the 
clover crop is that you can take a large crop from 
the soil, and still leave the soil in better condition 
than before the crop was taken. 

SojA Bean. 

Although known in the Southern States for a long 
time, it has never been fully appreciated, but prom- 
ises to become a great rival of the cow pea. It pro- 
duces a great amount of green forage, which seems 
to cure easier than cow pea vines, and proves more 
productive of peas. The plants grow erect to the 



. * Soiling Crops. 171 

height of two and one-half to four feet, compact and 
not spreading, but branching freely, producing nu- 
merous wooly pods, containing two to three round 
yellow beans. It is of as easy culture as our cow 
peas, yielding a forage which is greatly relished by 
farm stock, the beans being rich in protein. 

Prickly Comfrey. 

Vermont Report, 1889, page 87. 

"Began cutting May i6th. Four cuttings during 
the summer. First cutting. May i6th, 15.9 tons per 
acre. The other three cuttings averaged a little 
over seven tons per cutting. Generally grown by 
dividing roots, leaving one-half in the ground, cut- 
ting the half taken out into small pieces. A patch 
set out in early spring was ready for first cutting 
May 25th." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SOILING SHEEP. 

The advantages of soiling sheep are becoming 
more apparent in this country every year. " The 
flesh and wool of sheep," says Mr. Stewart, " are but 
the products of the soil, and contain nothing but 
what has existed in the plants which the sheep have 
consumed." No farmer who has ever bred sheep 
for mutton needs to be told of the necessity of sup- 
pl5nng an abundance of succulent food for his lambs, 
until they have reached maturity. A lamb that has 
been stunted for want of proper nourishment or 
from sickness can never be fattened as profitably 
as one whose growth has never been checked. The 
English farmers not only know this, but take every 
precaution to prevent it, and to this it is mainly due 
that they are enabled to export to this country, 
yearly, many thousand dollars' worth of sheep, while 
American farmers might breed as good at home i^ 
they would feed as well. 

But in regard to sheep we have yet much to learn. 
I mean we have to put into practice what we already 
know, but for some reason fail to appreciate its im- 
portance. There is not a farmer in America who 
will not say that it costs no more to keep a good 



Soiling Sheep. 173 

sheep than a poor one; but not one in a hundred 
puts the statement to proof in practice. The Eng- 
lish farmer makes no secret of how he produces a 
flock of sheep that average 200 lb. each, and shear 
from twelve to twenty pounds of beautiful wool. 
It is all explained in the one word, feed. Not 
grain so much as a never-ceasing supply of rich, 
nutritious forage which keeps the stock growing 
constantly throughout the year. To accomplish this 
they have adopted a regular system of soiling, 
known as folding or hurdling. 

As a general thing, the English feed less grain 
than we do. Again, it is very important to the wool 
grower that his flock should have an abundance of 
food throughout the entire year. Whenever the pas- 
tures fail, the growth of wool is checked, and if the 
sheep be afterward well fed, there will be found at 
shearing time a weak place in the wool, correspond- 
ing to the time in its growth when the food was_ 
insufficient. Wool, like milk from our cows, is pro- 
duced in proportion to the amount of food consumed 
above that required to support life. Therefore, the 
want of a proper amount of food is first noticed in 
the wool, and here is where many farmers are de- 
ceived. Their sheep look to be in passable condi- 
tion, and they are satisfied; but the sheep are not 
growing a profitable amount of wool, as they would 
if supplied with all they could eat. Says Mr. Miles, 
" The great development in fattening quality and 
early maturity has been secured by a liberal supply 
of nutritious food during the period of growth." 



174 Soiling. 

Mr. Youatt, an English author, says : " It is of the 
utmost importance that the ewes should have abun- 
dant food, in order to produce a flow of nutritious 
milk while they are suckling, and that the lambs 
should have plenty of good pasture or other succu- 
lent green food when they are weaned." 

Speaking of the Lincoln breed of sheep, Mr. 
Stewart says, " In connection with a system of farm- 
ing in which heavy crops of roots and green fodder 
were the chief production, this improved breed be- 
came fixed in its character as the heaviest producers 
of wool and mutton in the world." 

During the early part of the season, when vege- 
tation is putting forth vigorously, sheep do very 
well in pasture, but, by the time they have over- 
come the effects of winter, the pasture begins to 
fail. The ewe must eat to sustain herself and sup- 
port a lamb, often two ; at the same time she is also 
expected to be growing wool for the farmer. If she 
is not well provided with the best of food to produce 
milk, wool and flesh, the wool is first affected, then 
her offspring comes late to maturity, sometimes 
never , then her own body becomes a ready prey to 
parasites and disease, and she goes into winter quar- 
ters poor. A few years of such life hang her hide 
upon the fence, and give her carcass to the crows. 

There are many farmers keeping sheep who have 
no interest in their improvement, for the reason that 
every two or three years the rotation of the fields 
shortens the supply of pasture, and the flock goes to 
the butcher. They pick up a few culls after a year, 



Soiling Sheep. 175 

and begin another flock, which in turn follows the 
course of the first. The farmer has no objection to 
selecting a good sire as a means of improving, be- 
cause he doesn't know but what he will have to dis- 
pose of his flo,ck another year, if he should be likely 
to lose a seeding, or be short of pasture. 

There is probably no source of easier profit on the 
farm than a flock of well-cared-for sheep. Manure 
made from them is richer in nitrogen and potash 
than from any other animal, not excepting the hog 
and the hen. Their wool and lambs are in the 
market just when the farmer has the least to sell ; 
they require little care compared with cows and 
horses, and increase more rapidly. In fact, to de- 
prive a farm of a flock of good sheep is to rob it of 
one of its most pleasing and profitable attractions. 
There is a way in which they may be supplied with 
food, rich and succulent, when they most require it ; 
a way in which the lambs may be made to grow con- 
tinually from birth, and be early brought to full ma- 
turity ; a way in which the farmer can produce the 
greatest amount of wool superior in quality, manure 
unequalled in value, and make himself the possessor 
of a beautiful flock of sheep, and that is by soiling. 

I never regretted parting with any farm animals 
as I did with my flock of sheep. Nothing I ever 
grew afforded me the pleasure or profit, nothing I 
ever undertook to improve by careful breeding and 
feeding responded so quickly and well. My success 
as an exhibitor with both horses and cattle is owing 
principally to soiling. It is a question if ever a 



176 Soiling. 

flock was more improved in the same length of 
time. In 1875 I made m}^ first exhibit outside of 
country fairs, at the New York State Fair, at 
Rochester, N. Y. , and came home with a second 
prize on a ram lamb. Three years later the flock 
came home with the Sweepstakes Flock medal, won 
in competition with the three best flocks of Cotswolds 
m this countr}'. Afterward during five or six years 
the}^ never failed to bring home the largest share of 
the prize cards. 

The Cotswold, like all families of large-bodied, 
long and medium wooled sheep were originated in 
England, where the climate is cooler, and where 
they are soiled on vetches and rape summers, and 
turnips during autumn and winter, until rape and 
vetches come again. So that they have come up 
with habits of idleness in comiparison with our 
American merino and ordinary grades, which are 
content to grub all day on scanty pastures. By 
soiling, the English breeders have been able to sup- 
ply their sheep daily, from birth to maturity, w4th 
more forage than they could possibly devour. 
Americans fail to get the same results from English- 
bred sheep, simply because they are not as good 
feeders. When we get them to the States, we turn 
them to pasture, and they get on fairly well until 
June, when they prefer to lie in the shade than to 
seeking their food in the hot sun. Cotswolds, Lin- 
colns, and Leicesters, and the Downs as well, except- 
ing possibly the Southdown, will not work all day 
as they must at pasture, to produce the best results. 



Soiling Sheep. 177 

Therefore, to make them do their best in this coun- 
try, or to equal English-grown sheep that are kept 
feeding all the time, some way must be provided to 
accomplish the same end. We must remember that 
feed is mightier than breed. In fact, feed has been 
the making of breeds. Feed is, at least, the founda- 
tion of all modern breeds. Select animals from the 
choicest prize-winning flocks, the best in England 
or America, and neglect to feed them, and they soon 
degenerate into an ordinary race from whence they 
originally came. Selecting and coupling help to fix 
type, but food makes the breed. When a sheep 
breeder in America will make his sheep eat as much 
as an English shepherd, then he can grow in Ameri- 
ca as good specimens as they grow in England. 

After meeting my Waterloo in the show ring at 
the State fair, as already referred to, and not being 
sufficiently forehanded to buy a lot of imported 
sheep, as was the yearly custom of my principal 
competitors, I was either obliged to give up show- 
ing or take a back seat or reach for the prize in 
some other way. It so happened that my sheep were 
pastured the next year in a field adjoining the barn, 
and they were allowed the freedom of their winter 
quarters, where they were obliged to come and 
drink, and, as may be imagined, during the hot 
weather they spent the greater part of the day in 
this shed or under the shade of a board fence. In 
bringing in the soiling crops for the cows, the wagon 
passed the sheep shed, and as there was never in my 
estimation anything too good for my Cotswold ewes 
12 



178 Soiling. 

(even if they were not good enough to win at the 
New York State Fair) there were always a few fork- 
fuls thrown into their winter racks in passing. The 
sheep were delighted. The lambs grew as I never 
had lambs grow before. It was not uncommon to 
have them weigh 100 lb. at three months old, a gain 
of a pound a day for every day they were old. Of 
course, they had a lamb creep, as shown on page 183, 
where they could run into a separate pen and help 
themselves to bran with a little oil-cake meal in it. 
Later in the season a little cracked corn was added. 
I never had my ewes look as well or give as much 
milk ; and when we came to shear them and their 
lambs the next season, the increase was twenty-five 
to thirty-five per cent. Thus I unintentionally 
worked into the soiling of my sheep. The second 
year soiling was begun earlier and continued later. 
My sales of rams increased beyond all expectation, 
and the third year a rough board shed was built with 
a rough board roof, and soiling crops were put in 
especially for the sheep, as hereafter explained ; and 
that fall, as before stated, the flock won the Gold 
Medal Flock prize with American-bred ewes and 
lambs against the best flocks in the State, which 
this would never have been accomplished except for 
soiling. When in England in 1890 for the first time, 
I saw how sheep were universally soiled, and how it 
was that Americans have been obliged to keep going 
there for show sheep. It was also apparent how it 
had been possible for English breeders to produce 
such grand specimens as are found in the several 



Soiling Sheep. 179 

long and medium wooled families of that celebrated 
sheep country. These sheep were by education un- 
adapted to our general method of pasturing. They 
are too large and too much affected by the sun to 
work as most American pastured sheep are obliged 
to, and as only an American merino is willing to do 
over scanty pasture. There is, I believe, but one 
way to treat the English families of sheep to make 
them equal to English-bred and English-fed sheep, 
and that is to soil them. 

Results. 

From 1877 to 1883 my Cotswold flock won over 
$1,000 in premiums, besides several gold medals, 
flock prizes. 

The following table of comparison of the amount 
of wool taken from the same sheep following a year 
at pasture and after two years of soiling shows the 
effect of their having an abundance of food during 
the entire year, so that there was no check in the 
growth of wool : 

1878, thirty head of sheep pastured year before 280 pounds. 

1879, twenty-eight head of sheep partially soiled year 

before 330 ' ' 

1880, thirty-seven head of sheep principally soiled year 

before 55o " 

Those clipped in 1880 were wintered mostly on 
silage and bean fodder. In every other respect 
they were cared for as in the previous years. It 



i8o Soiling. 

will be noticed that the last clipping for 1885 aver- 
aged nearly fifteen pounds per head for the entire 
flock; the -shearling ewes averaged over sixteen 
pounds. 

My lambs, during the years 1880 and 1881, were 
weaned July ist, and at the average age of four 
months, the average weight was a trifle over ninety- 
one pounds, many of the single lambs weighing a 
pound or nearly so for every day they were old. 
As many of them were twins, the average was re- 
duced. The above results I have never known to 
be equalled by an}^ flock of Cotswolds, or any other 
breeds of sheep in America. The secret of my suc- 
cess was keeping the sheep eating, and giving them 
a shady place to eat in. The extra labor was re- 
turned several times over. I give soiling the credit 
for these results. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SOILING CROPS FOE. SHEEP. 

In selecting- crops for sheep, the most prominent 
are tares (vetches), rape, turnips, lucern and clover 
(early cut), oats and peas. Of these, rape and 
vetches are decidedly the best. 

Vetches (Tares). 

Spring and winter tares are largely sown in Eng*- 
land for soiling sheep, cattle, and horses. All stock 
are exceedingly fond of them. My experience in 
feeding them is very satisfactory. I have never 
undertaken to cultivate the winter variety. Spring 
tares are usually sown in March or April. They 
are very much like the common field pea, except 
that the stalks and leaves are finer, a vigorously 
growing plant, highly relished by sheep and lambs. 
The blossom and pod are similar to those of the pea. 
A small quantity of oats, barley, or rye should be 
sown with them as a support, otherwise they are apt 
to lodge, which materially lessens their value. They 
may be sown with a grain drill or broadcast. 

An English writer says: "Sheep may be fattened 
upon them, the milk of cows is enriched and in- 



182 Soiling. 

creased by them, and they are extensively employed 
in feeding horses. They do not require a rich soil." 
Sow same as field peas, two bushels per acre in a 
grain drill with one bushel of oats. 



Rape. 

Rape may be called a turnip which has all grown 
to leaves. It looks and tastes like turnip tops, but 
has roots similar to those of grain and grasses. The 
seeds also look like those of the turnip. It grows 
from ten to fifteen inches high. It is a most nutri- 
tious forage plant, and is equalled by no other vege- 
table, as may be seen by the foregoing tables. Its 
culture is similar to that of the turnip, and will sus- 
tain about the same number of animals per. acre, 
and may be sown later in the season. As a food for 
young lambs it has no superior. It was my custom 
to sow a small patch in the corner of the pasture or 
in an adjoining field to the place where the ewes are 
confined, with a lamb creep — a hole in the fence 
large enough to admit a lamb but to exclude a 
sheep, with a roller at the top and sides to prevent 
tearing the wool, as shown in the following illustra- 
tion. 

The lambs will soon learn to run in and feed, as 
they are exceedingly fond of the plant. It requires 
about two pecks^of the seed per acre, which should 
be sown in July for fall feeding. If intended to be 
fed to grown sheep, it should be cut and fed to them 



Soiling Crops for Sheep. 183 

in racks ; otherwise they destroy much of it. Lambs 
may be allowed to pasture upon it, as they are light 
in weight, and, if unaccompanied by their dams, 
only stay in the enclosure while feeding. The high 
feeding value of this plant strongly recommends 
it to farmers raising early market lambs. For this 
purpose it should be sown earlier. 

I began growing rape at the suggestion of Mr. 



C^fl 



J 



L^rab Creep. 

John Ross, of Jarvis, Ont. , a noted Cotswold 
breeder in his day, with the result that I never have 
found any forage so satisfactory for forcing lambs, 
or so good for age ewes and fattening store sheep, 
or in putting the finishing touches to the animals 
selected to lift the prize cards at the autumn fairs. 

I usually obtained the seed from Canada, where 
rape is used more extensively than in the States. 
The chances for getting good, fresh seed there are 
better, therefore, than in the States, 



184 Soiling. 

The principal requirement is to have a thoroughly 
pulverized seed-bed, and to sow in drills with a hand 
seeder twenty inches apart, and cultivated two or 
three times with a horse hoe between rows ; and if 
ground is weedy, use a garden hand-wheel hoe once 
or twice on the rows. 

For a general fall crop, sow broadcast just after 
the last cultivating among the ensilage corn, the 
same as you would flat turnips, and by the time that 
the summer feeding is over, you will have a grand 
crop for September and October, either to soil from 
or to turn the sheep on. 

Rape is the best possible green forage to have on 
hand at time of weaning the lambs, so that they will 
not go backwards. Lambs may be taken from the 
ewes earlier, if rape is^ at hand, than without it, 
giving the ewes more time to recuperate, there- 
fore, coming sooner and in better condition to the 
coupling season. There is nothing like a field of 
rape to put ewes in the finest possible condition for 
going into winter quarters, and if grown on the 
ensilage ground without cultivating, is most econ- 
omical, and will do what would require a very liberal 
grain feeding to equal. 

As rape is a crop not generally known in the 
States, the following quotations are given, which 
confirm all I have said in its favor and more : 

United States Bulletin, 11. 

'' There is still a season after the corn has been 
harvested and before the setting in of winter, dur- 



Soiling Crops for Sheep. 185 

ing which we must depend vSolely upon grass as a 
source of food for our flocks and herds, otherwise 
we must draw on our winter stores to feed them. 
" The Dwarf Essex rape is a plant which can be 




Rape Plant, showing growth of two months on station fai-m, July to 

Augvist, 1894. 

easily grown in many portions of the United States, 
and which will furnish abundant supplies of succu- 



1 86 Soiling. 

lent, rich and nutritious pasture at a season of the 
year when most needed. The rape plant grows 
slowly at first, but after a time pushes ahead rapidly. 
Where the conditions are suitable, an average crop 
tjfrown in drills should furnish not less than ten tons 
per acre, and when the conditions are all favorable, 
it should be quite possible to produce at least twenty 
tons of green fodder per acre. A large percentage 
of Canadian lambs shipped during the more recent 
years to Buffalo market from Canada have been fin- 
ished on rape. Larger crops can be obtained from 
rape sown in drills rather than broadcast. 

" Salt is a valuable fertilizer for rape on certain 
soils. In some seasons a good crop of rape can be 
grown after a crop of winter wheat has been re- 
moved. We found that one acre of rape would pas- 
ture thirty-six to thirty-seven head of lambs for two 
months. It would probably be correct to say that 
rape will grow in fine form in any soil that will pro- 
duce an abundant crop of turnips or Indian corn. 
Rape calls for fine pulverization of surface soil free 
from undecayed vegetable matter. Rape responds 
vigorously to the application of barnyard manure. 
Rape is a gross feeding plant ; therefore, has much 
power to gather plant food in the soil. 

" Rape is unrivalled as a pasture for sheep in 
autumn. As a fattening food in the field, it is with- 
out a rival in point of cheapness or effectiveness. 
It does not detract from the fertility when the sheep 
which eat it off are inclosed upon it." 



Soiling Crops for Sheep. 187 



Turnips. 

The turnip in England has become a regular rota- 
tion crop, and takes the place of corn in this coun- 
try, I.e., first turnips, second barley, third wheat, 
fourth grass or pasture. The varieties mostly used 
for feeding stock are the White Norfolk, Yellow 
Aberdeen, Swedish, and Dale's Hybrid, *' which 
latter is a hardy, succulent vegetable, much relished 
by stock, and in no respect injured by the severest 
winter." It is sometimes sown broadcast, but is 
found to pay better when sown in drills and culti- 
vated. Turnips may be sown from the last of May 
till the second week in July. 

These are the principal soiling crops for sheep, in 
connection with the other forage crops which have 
been considered under the general head of soiling 
crops, especially oats and peas, lucern, vetches or 
tares. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PORTABLE FENCING. 

The woven galvanized wire fencing, supported by 
stakes driven into the ground every ten feet, makes 
one of the most convenient and easily handled of all 





portable fencing for sheep. Three or three and 
one-half feet will be found high enough. One man 
can handle a roll of 300 feet. (See cut.) 

If it is desirable to have a portable fence, the fol- 
lowing can be recommended: The battens at the 
ends are nailed on opposite sides of each panel. The 
panels are held or locked together by a ^-inch steel 
or iron rod, bent as shown. To erect the fence, one 
panel is set up end to end of another, the steel rod is 
hooked onto the second board from the top of each 
panel. Thepanel last set up is then swung to the left 
or right, as the case may be, until the iron rod brings 
the two ends tight together. The next panel is put up 



Portable Fencing. 



with the rod on the op- 
posite side of the panel, 
and is swung in the op- 
posite direction. This 
makes a slightly zigzag 
fence, just enough so 
that each panel braces 
the other. Every tenth 
panel has six 6-inch 
blocks bolted on to it, 
two at each end and 
two in the middle. 
These blocks are to 
answer the purpose of 
runners to move the 
fence. The panel with 
the block on is first laid 
upon the ground; on 
that the other nine pan- 
els are laid. A horse is 
hitched to the bottom 
one, and the ten panels 
are sledded along, and 
set up wherever want- 
ed. There is now on 
my farm a hundred 
such panels that were 
made in 1885. The 
hurdles are made twelve 
feet long, the three up- 
per boards, 1X4 inches, 




190 Soiling. 

are from sixteen-foot boards. The six feet sawed 
from them makes the two battens. The bottom board 
is six inches wide, and' bought in twelve-foot lengths. 
The end battens are allowed to project three inches 
below the bottom board, so that the bottom boards 
do not rest on the ground; the panels, therefore, 
adapt themselves better to an uneven surface. 

Feeding Racks. 

A movable feeding rack is a most convenient 
thing, when it is desirable to feed soiling crops over 
the fence. It is equally serviceable as a winter rack. 
The roof projects over the sheep, affording some 
shade. This is a very essential addition to such a 
rack for summer feeding. The roof is made of clap- 
boards or novelty siding. There is a ring for a 
clevis in either end, to which a horse may be at- 
tached, to draw it from place to place, or to move it 
along the fence as the cutting of the soiling crop on 
the opposite side requires, so that a forkful may be 
delivered into the rack from over the fence. These 
racks are ten feet long, and cost about $10 to make 
with turned slats. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
MANNER OF SOILING SHEEP. 

Laying Out the Work. 

We will consider briefly the methods adopted for 
feeding sheep by the soiling system. If moved 
about from field to field by the rotation of crops, 
they may be supplied with any of the soiling crops 
just mentioned, by fencing off a portion of the field 
in which they are pastured, and devoting that por- 
tion to the growth of soiling crops ; or a small por- 
tion of an adjoining field may be used for that pur- 
pose. In either case the several crops should be sown 
or planted in rows parallel with the division fence, 
the crop for the first feeding being nearest the 
fence. A movable rack (see cut) m the pasture will 
serve to hold the feed as it is cut. 

Each seeding is intended to supply food for one 
month, beginning about the ist of July on the first 
sowing, cutting with scythe or cradle, and throw- 
ing the cutting over the fence into the rack. By 
the time the first sowing is consumed, the second 
should be ready for cutting, which may be done in 
a direction opposite to that of the first cutting, fol- 
lowing back with the rack. The first crop next to 
the dividing fence may be oats and peas (one bushel 



192 



Soiling. 




Manner of Soiling Sheep. 193 

of oats, two of peas or vetches) , the second, third, 
and fourth, rape. After the first and second sow- 
ings have been cut, the ground which was occupied 




SecMoAof SheepracK. 



Steele. I 



I I I I I z 



i 



by them may be top-dressed and cultivated in, or 
plowed shallow, and sown to rape for late fall 
feedmg. 

In estimating the amount of ground necessary to 
supply a flock with forage, we apply the same rule 
as given for calculating the amount required to sup- 
13 



1 94 Soiling 

ply i,ooo lb. (or a full-grown cow). Thus, sheep 
averaging- loo lb. would require each one-tenth of 
that necessary for a cow, or, of oats and peas, one- 
tenth of three-fourths square rod per day. This 
estimate for sheep in the plan of feeding above de- 
scribed may be reduced to at least half a square rod 
per day for every i,ooo lb., as the sheep will obtain 
part of their feed from the pasture; but this part 
will, of course, depend upon the size of the pasture 
and the fertility of the soil. My own experience in 
soiling in this manner was in an old orchard con- 
taining five acres, one acre of which was fenced 
off as above described. This four acres of pasture 
and one devoted to soiling crops kept twenty-four 
head of large, long-wooled sheep, and twenty-two 
lambs (fully equal to five head of i,ooo lb. each) 
during the season. This leads to me to say that, 
as a rule, for every i,ooo lb. it will require one. 
acre of land, one-fifth of which should be devoted 
to soiling crops. It is safe to say that the five 
acres, with one devoted to soiling crops, were equal 
to ten pastured, or that one acre soiled is equal to 
five pastured. The variety of the feed and the 
shade made the sheep contented, and, better still, 
they had all they could or would eat. 

Permanent Pasture. 

Another method of feeding is practised to some 
extent in this country, i.e.^ soiling the sheep in con- 
nection with a permanent pasture. One acre of 



Manner of Soiling Sheep. 195 

permanent sheep pasture is generally speaking, 
worth two or three acres of new seeding. 

The plan is to have a field properly located and 
laid down to a large variety of grasses, some early, 
some medium, and some late in coming to maturity, 
some that grow thickly making a compact sward, 
others that send down long tap roots to enable them 
to withstand drought. The following varieties are 
none too many and make a most valuable succession, 
and if once well established become a source of much 
greater profit than the ordinary seedings that follow 
a rotation of crops. 

The following-named varieties and date of matur- 
ity make a splendid combination. The amount in 
pounds are the proportion of seed for one acre : 

Pounds 
Varieties of Grass. When Flowering. p . 

Sweet scented vernal April and May 4 

Orchard grass April and May 6 

Sheep's fescue. ... May and June 3 

Kentucky blue grass May and June 4 

Indian rye grass June 4 

Red top June and July 4 

Timothy June and July. 4 

English rye grass July and August 6 

White clover May to September 5 

Total number of pounds per acre. 40 

The seeds for an acre will cost $7 to $10, but when 
a pasture of this kind is once established, the differ- 
ence m the first cost is normally nothing. There 
should be a very thorough preparation of the soil, 



96 



Soil! 



ing. 



even if it takes three years, as it did in my experi- 
ence, to get the field in suitable condition. The 
land should be as Hch and free from weeds as pos- 
sible, using either green manure or thoroughly rotted 
barnyard manure to reduce the introduction of foul 
seeds to the least possible amount. 

Feeding, 

With such a permanent pasture the method of 
growing soiling crops for sheep may be illustrated 
as follows : 

F, L, R, comprise the permanent pasture or the 
feeding shed. L and R show how rams and ewe 



i 

• 

1 

1 


' 


( 




f\ 












» 




1 












F 




A 


P 






! 
1 








L 












! 




, 















lambs may be separated from the floor by portable 
fencing, under the enclosure, so that they may also 
be fed on green forage in a portion of the shed. 

The following illustrates the feeding shed, which, 
in my case, was made of rough boards and the roof 
was of rough pine. 



Manner of Soiling Sheep. 197 

This shed stands on ground devoted to soiling 
crops fencing the permanent pasture, so that the 
shepherd or soiler may drive on the three sides of the 




building, putting the feed through into racks from 
the wagon, as shown, without disturbing or going 
among the sheep. There are no gates to open. 

A patch of rape may be sown and fenced off in the 
field devoted to soiling crops for the lambs, giving 
them access to it by means of a lamb creep, as 
already shown, page 183, or in any other fields ad- 
joining the permanent pasture that may happen to 
be under cultivation. 

A portion of the shed may also be partitioned off 
for the lambs, where they can help themselves to 
bran and crushed oats and oil cake at will. They 
will not injure themselves by over-eating if they 
run that way. They also enter this enclosure by the 
lamb creep. 

This method was adopted at Maple Lane w4th 
great success. This system replaced the movable 
rack already referred to. I liked it better because 
the sheep liked it better ; it afforded better shade. 



198 Soiling. 

The sheep remained in this enclosure the greater 
part of the day, and, of course, ate a great deal 
more than in a field where, in warm weather, no 
matter how tempting the pasture, they spent most 
of their time lying under the fence. 

Of course the sheep must be supplied with water 
and salt. The idea that sheep do not require water 
is only an excuse for not supplying it. A sheep 
never cares to drink much at a time, but likes a sip 
quite often. I have always found it more profitable 
to indulge the wants of my stock than my own. 

The feeding racks are filled three times a day, 
morning, noon, and night, and this may be done by 
a boy. No more should be fed at a time than the 
sheep will eat, and, should there be any left in the 
racks, it should be removed before fresh feed is 
added. The shepherd will soon learn the wants of 
his flock. Another method of feeding is that of 
folding the sheep iipon the soiling crops instead of 
cutting them. Formerly (in England) this was the 
practice, but lately they have more generally 
adopted the practice of cutting and feeding in racks. 

Rotation of Crops. 

When a rotation of crops is considered profitable, 
the following arrangement might be suggested: 

a, Represents the feeding shed; i, 2, 3, 4, four 
fields of enclosure in one field. 

Starting with fields No. i and 2 as pasture lots, 
No. 3 is devoted to soiling crops, and No. 4 to 



Manner of Soiling Sheep. 199 

roots or rape, No. 3 being seeded to grass with rye 
in the fall. The next season plow No. i for rape,, 
having been plowed shallow the fall before. No. 4 




is now devoted to soiling crops and No. 2 and 3 to 
pasture, and so on in succession around the house. 
This plan would possibly require more land than the 
other, but it might be found to work to even better 
advantage. 



CHAPTER XYIII. 
SOILING HORSES. 

Brood Mares and Colts. 

After leaving the Maple Lane farm in 1883, and 
where the operations in soiling- and ensilage began, 
and were recorded in the first vohime of this work, 
published in the winter of 1880 and 1881, we moved 
to Livingston County, N. Y. , where on the " Murray 
Hill" Farm the soiling system summer and winter 
was practised, with thirty-six head of Jersey cattle 
and forty-two head of Cotswold sheep. To this stock 
fourteen brood mares and twelve colts were put on a 
strict soiling system, while the five stallions in the 
stud came in for no small share. Two two-j^ear-olds 
were fed on soiling crops almost entirely, while the 
three stallions in the stud were put on soiling crops 
after the spring breeding season was over, so that 
with cattle, horses, brood mares, and colts, and 
sheep, to say nothing of the swine, we were soiling 
all told at least sixty head of full-grown stock, not 
counting in the stallions. 

The forage for these sixty head, counting pasture, 
hay, silage, and soiling crops, was sixty-nine acres of 
land the first year. We remained on the " Murray 
Hill " Farm only three years, when the cattle and 



Soiling Horses. 201 

sheep were sold, and the horse business was carried 
on alone on " Squawkie Hill," where, at onetime, 
we had between thirty and forty head of brood mares 
and colts that were always supplied, more or less, 
with soiling- crops during the summer. For brood 
mares with foal at foot, oats and peas make a grand 
feed. There is nothing, however, that seems better 
suited to horses than lucern, where land is adapted 
to its growth. 

The horses, like the cows, were always fed soiling 
crops in their stall daytimes, and turned out nights ; 
and any one who wishes to raise a thrifty colt, and 
keep the mother in reasonably good condition, can 
be assured that soiling is the best and most econ- 
omical way to accomplish that end. My success in 
the show ring with horses as well as cattle was 
owing largely to soiling. The following is a clipping 
from the " Live Stock Journal " : 

" This class of stock (horses) is thought by many 
to be unadapted to the soiling system, especially 
colts, as they require exercise to develop the muscu- 
lar power, and soiling is thought to require too close 
confinement. This arises from misconception of the 
flexibility of the system. Soiling does not neces- 
sarily require the confinement of animals any more 
than pasturing. It is true that pasturing furnishes 
larger fields to range in, but nearly every farmer 
can devote a lane running to the wood-lot as space 
to exercise in. This lane is necessary for the con- 
venience of the farm, and generally furnishes a road 
to the different parts of the tillable land and 



202 Soiling. 

meadow. This will furnish the colts abundant 
room to make trials of speed, and afford all the ex- 
ercise necessary to develop muscle. This run-way 
is easily fenced so substantially as to prevent the 
colts from jumping, and thus becoming trouble- 
some. I have raised a dozen colts in this way, and 
found them to develop in every respect as well as 
those pastured. We found this plan to work with 
brood mares and their foals. Having the food of 
the mares wholly under control, their production of 
milk will be more uniform, and the growth of their 
foals much better, than on pasture. The dam re- 
quires full feeding upon appropriate food, and this 
may always be given in soiling, as any defect in the 
succulence or nutrition of grasses or other soiling 
foods may be supplemented with middlings, oil 
meal and oats. The foals are also constantly under 
the eye of the feeder, easily become accustomed to 
handling, and may be taught to take other food at 
a younger age. Early familiarity with the attend- 
ant and docility are not only favorable to the foal's 
progress in development, but to its easy manage- 
ment at the training age. The vigorous, steady, and 
healthy growth of colts is most essential to their 
future value as serviceable animals, and, therefore, 
to the profit of the breeder. Soiling offers the most 
complete control over the food and management of 
colts; and therefore, under this system, they may be 
grown with much more uniform success, and, on 
land worthy $50 or more per acre, much cheaper 
than by pasturing. The foal responds more quickly 



Soiling Horses. 203 

to the use of cow's milk than any other food after 
weaning, and this may be skimmed milk, after teach- 
ing it first to drink new milk. The colt being under 
attention in soiling, this extra food may be given 
with little extra labor. From considerable experi- 
ence I consider the soiling system as well adapted 
to the raising of horses in all stages, from the suck- 
ling colt to the mature horse." 



CHAPTER XIX. 
WINTER SOILING (ENSILAGE). 

History. 

In 1875 there first came to this country reports of 
experiments made in France, by Monsieur Auguste 
Goffart, of preserving- green forage. After many 
trials and faihires, and the expenditure of consider- 
able money, his labors were crowned with success. 
The same year the French Government awarded to 
Mr. Goffart the Cross of the Legion of Honor. 

M. Goffart first successfully ensilaged cut maize 
in 1873. For years he held to the idea that the 
green forage should be partially cured, and that it 
should be put in the pit in alternate layers with 
straw, until, more by chance than otherwise, he dis- 
covered that the curing process and the use of straw 
was, more than anything else, defeating the end in 
view. Although ancient historians mention pre- 
serving grain, and also forage, in pits dug in the 
ground, the system had been discarded for hun- 
dreds of years, and M. Goffart deserves all the 
credit for its rediscovery. He must have been a 
most persistent and resolute man, for year after 
year he was obliged to cart out the forage he at- 
tempted to preserve, as so much manure. 



Winter Soiling 



205 



After adopting a strict soiling system with my 
cattle, as already explained, it was found that more 
stock could be supported on the farm during \he 
summer than could be carried through the winter, 
which was contrary to the general practice under 




AUGUSTE GOFFART, 
Born at Le Quesnoy, France, April 6, 1811. Ensilaged Cut Maize, 

Burtin, 1873. 

the pasture system. This naturally attracted to the 
reports of M. Goffart's success in the saving green 
forage, for it was apparent that if ensilage was a 
success it would enable me to soil my cattle winters 
as well as summers. 

Francis Morris, of Ellicott City, Md., experi- 
mented with whole corn in a trench or pit dug in 
the ground and covered with earth; he reported 



2o6 Ensilage. 

that he found the corn fairly well preserved, and 
that his stock ate it well. To Dr. Bailey, of Boston, 
Mass., belongs, however, the credit of building the 
first silo in America, a successful opening of which 
was reported in " The Country Gentleman " in De- 
cember, 1879. I hastened to Boston to see for my- 
self. The doctor went with me to his farm at Bil- 
lerica, Mass. , and I saw the cows eating the silage ; 
and when hay was put into the racks on top of the 
silage, they pushed it aside, preferring the silage. 
I had to admit " that there was no accounting for 
taste," but also "that the proof of the pudding was 
in the eating." The cows seemed to relish it, and 
have a hearty appetite for it. This settled the ques- 
tion for me. The following season we converted an 
old cobblestone carriage-house and horse-barn into 
a silo by taking out the hay -loft floor, walling up the 
doors, and windows, and giving the interior a coat of 
waterlime cement. This building was twenty or 
thirty rods from the cattle barns, and all the silage 
had to be carted there, but no matter. If my cows 
could be soiled winters, I was willing to put up with 
almost anything to accomplish it. 

This stone barn made a silo eighteen by twenty- 
four inside and twenty feet deep, which was filled 
the following autumn and heavily weighted with 
stones (which were thought necessary at that time). 
This silo answered the purpose, and was a success 
from the first. 

I believe this was the first silo in the State of New 
York, and the second in the United States, not count- 



Winter Soiling. 207 

ing Mr. Morris's experimental earth silo. I speak 
of this with some degree of pride, because I was at 
that time subjected to much ridicule. Soiling my 
cattle summers was bad enough in the estimation of 
my neighbors, but ensilage (sauerkraut as it was 
then called by many) was the capsheaf of folly. 

However, the cattle liked it, and I liked the cat- 
tle. The sheep ate it, and nothing that I could do 
was too good for them. The neighbors laughed at 
me. The cattle and sheep also laughed at me when- 
ever they saw me coming on a load of sauerkraut. 
I was getting 50 cents a pound for butter, and I also 
had to laugh. 

As to the result it fully met my expectations, but 
I have never claimed, as some have, that it takes the 
place of soiling, as will be shown under a heading 
entitled Soiling vs. Ensilage. 

The only thing that can be said of ensilage now, 
compared with ensilage in 1879 ^^^ 1880, is that the 
method of handling the crops is much simplified, 
and the construction of wooden silos instead of ma- 
sonry, as was then believed necessary, has greatly 
reduced the expense of construction. The perfec- 
tion of a corn cutter has lessened the labor and ex- 
pense of harvesting the corn, until the system has 
become quite generally adopted, and is now within 
the reach of almost any farmer. 



2o8 Ensilage. 



Ensilage vs. Cured Fodder. 

The same grasses on which a cow feeds and thrives 
in summer, and which enabled her to produce an 
abundant flow of rich milk, and butter superior in 
color, and flavor, and quality, when cured and fed 
to her in the winter (or summer either for that mat- 
ter) produce far less in quality and quantity, and the 
butter is also inferior in color and flavor. 

Young cattle thrive during the summer, while 
during the winter, if they hold their own or a little 
better, they have done as well as most farmers could 
expect even when a little grain has been added. 

If it were possible, therefore, to supply our stock 
in winter with such succulent and nutritious food as 
they are able to obtain on grass, the difficulties 
above referred to would, in a great measure be over- 
come. Ensilage comes the nearest to supplying 
these conditions of anything we know of for a win- 
ter forage. Our experimental station, by careful 
and repeated analysis of cured-corn fodder and en- 
silage, sometimes find a result in favor of one, some- 
times the other, but generally it has been in favor 
of ensilage. 

First, the chemist puts both ensilage and cured- 
corn fodder in a dry kiln to note the amount of 
moisure (all juices of plants being recorded as so 
much water). The kiln-dried product is then sub- 
jected to chemical tests, and finally consumed, 



Winter Soiling. 209 

burned. As a result they find the feeding and ma- 
nurial value of both samples. 

Although all juice of the plant is looked upon as 
so much water, curing clover hay or cornstalks, and 
then adding to them as much water as they lost in 
juice, this, while it usually gives better results than 
when fed dry, does by no means restore the forage 
its full feeding value. You may go a step farther 
and cook or steam the feed, and still you have not 
been able to bring back to it what it possessed, or, at 
least, what the animals are able to extract from the 
same food in its green, succulent state. 

That ensilage contains greater feeding value than 
cured corn, no one should expect. There is cer- 
tainly nothing within the four walls of a silo to 
manufacture albuminoids, carbohydrates, or fat; 
therefore, whatever difference there may be in the 
result of feeding green forage and cured, that differ- 
ence should be credited to the juice of the plant as 
so much food. Every farmer knows that whole 
cornstalks are always fed at a waste. From fifty to 
seventy-five per cent, of the stalk goes into the 
manure pile, unless absolute hunger induces the 
stock to eat more than they otherwise would. Even 
when run through the cutter a large proportion is 
wasted. The experiment station says that the grain 
is forty-five per cent, of the plant, and that forty-five 
per cent, of the value of the plant is in the stalk be- 
low the ear, and only ten per cent, of the value of 
the stalk above the ear. 



2 1 o Ensilage. 



Palatability. 

Then comes the question of palatability. A piece 
of fat pork may furnish more nutriment to a person 
than a whole loaf of bread ; but if the person dislikes 
the one and enjoys the other, what comfort or bene- 
fit is that person to g-et from a chemical analysis? 
When a cow leaves hay to eat ensilage, and hungers 
for it, what good is it to the cow, or to the owner 
either, to know that the hay contains the greater 
feeding- value? This is another point that is invari- 
ably lost sight of at experimental stations. If a 
cow eats cured stalks simply to satisfy hunger, and 
has a relish for ensilag-e in quantities controlled only 
by her capacity, it is not a question of albuminoids, 
carbohydrates, and fats, but of dollars and cents to 
the owner. " Allowing the cows to eat as much as 
they wanted of corn silage and fodder corn with the 
same ration of hay, bran, and oats, they were able 
to give more milk daily, which contained more fat 
on the ensilage than on the fodder corn, while the 
quantity of butter produced on the ensilage feed 
was more than on the fodder-corn feed." At the 
same time the cows invariably consumed less dry 
matter when on fodder than when on ensilage. 

Ensilage vs. Hay. 

The advantages of winter soiling over the feeding 
of cured hay and cornstalks may be summed up un- 
der the following heads, but as these points have 



Winter Soiling. 2i I 

been discussed largely under similar headings and 
under summer soiling, a brief mention of them will 
suffice. 

First. The increased acreage of the farm. Here 
in adopting winter soiling lies the great and unmis- 
takable value or profit, and it is passing strange 
how for years and years the question hung on the 
point of what analysis was able to prove compared 
with hay or dried corn fodder. The question is the 
same as with summer soiling. What is the use of 
discussing whether there is more feeding value in a 
ton of grass or a ton of oats and peas? What the 
soiler wants to know is how many more head of cat- 
tle he can support from an acre. 

It may take two or even three tons of ensilage to 
equal a ton of hay, but if by growing ensilage the 
farmer can make one acre produce an equivalent in 
feeding value to five, six, and even seven tons of 
hay per acre, there is a gain so distinct that he who 
runs may read. It matters little whether science 
agrees with the cattle or not. There are hundreds 
of thousands of farmers who have demonstrated 
that ensilage is a good thing. They have doubled 
the number of their dairy, they are getting twice as 
much milk a year as formerly, making twice as much 
manure, and growing crops that have in many cases 
doubled the former yield, and they have done it all 
without buying more land. 

The following table shows at a glance the real 
value and advantage of ensilage over hay. It may 
be stated that, as a rule, land that will produce one 



1\2 



Ensilage. 



ton of hay per acre will produce fifteen tons of en- 
silage, and land that will produce two tons of hay 
per acre will produce thirty tons of ensilage per 
acre. Two tons of ensilage is fully equal to a ton 
of hay in feeding results, no matter what the chemist 
says as to their comparative analyses. 

Ensilage vs. Hay. 



Value one ton of hay at f 12 per ton 

Seed per acre 

Cost of cutting and delivering to barn 

Value fifteen tons ensilage (two tons ensilage 

equal to one ton of hay) $6 per ton 

Seed, fitting the ground and cultivating 

Labor to cut and secure fifteen tons, estimated. 

Net feeding value 



Ensilage. 



Dr. 



15.5.00 
11.00 



Cr. 



Hay. 



Dr. 



ft. 00 
2.50 



Cr. 

$12.00 



5- 50 



The use of the land is the same in both cases. I 
have not taken the question of manure into account. 
My experiences in plowing portions of meadows for 
ensilage, at Maple Lane, were as follows: Five 
and one-half acres of an eight-acre field of hay was 
planted to ensilage without manure. We cut nearly 
thirty tons of ensilage per acre, as proved by the 
number of cubic feet of ensilage in the silo, when 
settled, estimating fifty pounds per cubic foot. I am 
positive that from the remainder of the field there 
was not cut more than a ton and a half of cured hay 
per acre. 



Winter Soiling. 213 

On Murray Hill the experiment was repeated on 
land that only produced three-fourths of a ton of 
clover per acre. From the same field we cut at least 
fifteen tons of ensilage per acre without manuring 
the piece. 

Several times in this work attention has been 
called to the saving of land by the soiling system, 
as its most distinctive feature, as shown by the 
table. The feeding value of an acre of ensilage 
or an acre of grass is ten to one. It is passing 
strange that experimental stations, and the pub- 
lic in general, have been so slow in compre- 
hending this point. 

Cured Corn vs. Ensilage. 

There is only one answer to the question of cost 
between curing corn stalks and ensilaging the same, 
allowing there is no difference in feeding value, and 
the answer is in favor of silage. It always has been, 
especially if the cured fodder is run through the 
cutting box or shredder; in both cases the planting 
and cutting are the same. Both have to be delivered 
to the barn. In this there is something saved in 
hauling the dried stalks over ensilage, but there 
comes the expense of shocking the former ; therefore 
the question of harvesting is in favor of silage. A 
cubic foot of ensilage weighs about fifty pounds; 
therefore one ton only occupies forty cubic feet. A 
ton of hay in mow or stack occupies 525 cubic feet, 
or about thirteen times as much room as a ton of 



214 Ensilage. 

silage, while a ton of ctired-corn fodder requires 
much more space than hay. 

If two tons of ensilage are equal to a ton of hay, 
then ensilage will require only one-sixth as much 
room as hay. So much for the simple question of 
economy in storage between the two methods. 



CHAPTER XX. 
THE SILO. 

How Large to Build. 

A FULL-GROWN COW Will coHSume from one and one- 
half to two cubic feet of ensilage per day, but gen- 
erally it has been found advisable to make one of 
three feedings a day of hay. 

At one and one-half cubic feet per day, a cow 
would consume in six months (the usual length of 
time for feeding winter forage in Western New 
York), 270 cubic feet, allowing for waste, say 300 
cubic feet. If we multiply 300 cubic feet by the 
number of animals we wish to feed, it will give 
the size that is required to build, in cubic feet. 

The following table gives the capacity in tons of 
different-sized silos. It is reckoned at forty cubic 
feet per ton, and a ton to last a cow one month. 
That is about sixty-six pounds per day, which is a 
liberal feeding. The quantity is computed for six 
months, estimating fifteen tons per acre. 



2l6 



Ensilage. 





Size. 


Capacity. 




Diameter. 


Height. 


Cubic 
Feet. 


Tons 
Contained. 


Cows 
Numbered. 


Acres 
Required. 


I 


lO 


20 


1,455 


30 


5 


2 


2 


lO 


24 


1,745 


43 


7 


3 


3 


12 


20 


2,160 


54 


9 


4 , 


4 


12 


24 


2,532 


63 


II 


4K 


5 


12 


30 


3.240 


80 


13 


5 


6 


i6 


20 


3,840 


90 


15 


6 


7 


i6 


24 


4,608 


"5 


19 


8 


8 


i6 


30 


5,760 


144 


24 


10 



As to height, the modern ensilage cutters have 
carriers to almost any length, twenty-five to thirty 
feet if necessary. The silo should not be too large 
on top. It is best to uncover the whole at a time, 
taking off the entire top each day. This prevents 
cutting down with a hay knife. 



Where to Build. 

In locating the silo it should by all means be placed 
so as to open into the cow stable, and on a level with 
it, but not directly into the stable. The idea is to 
keep the odor from the barn except when feeding ; 
that is, in a barn for dairy cows, as the milk, while 
being taken from the cows, absorbs the odor, and 
has been the cause of condemned milk from ensil- 
age-fed cows. This contamination comes from the 
odor in the barn and not because the animals feed 
on ensilage. If the number of cows will warrant 
it, the silage can be delivered from a wagon the 
same as the summer soiling crops. The silo should 
be so placed as not to interfere with drawing through 



The Silo. 



217 



the barn with soiling crops, and for getting- out with 
manure. 

How TO Build. 

There are so many different ways of building a 
silo that it will be impossible to mention them all. 
I shall only speak of the most general methods. 

Of Masonry. — We built two silos of brick, holding 
160 tons each, at Murray Hill, and they gave excel- 
lent satisfaction. This was in 1883, and they are as 
good to-day as ever. Possibly a masonry silo will 
be found the cheapest in the end. 

Of Concrete. — Six to eight parts gravel to one of 
cement. This is built by pouring or dumping the 




mixture between planks placed on edge, and sup- 
ported by braces and upright timbers to keep the 



2 I 8 Ensilage. 

planks from spreading. This makes a very service- 
able wall, and an inexpensive one, especially where 
the owner has the gravel at hand. A wall of this 
kind should be eighteen inches at the bottom, and 
taper to twelve inches on top, and be built plumb 
on the inside. 

TJic Square Wooden Silo. — Studding, double 
boarded on the inside, with building or tarred paper 
between the boards, is recommended by some. Oth- 
ers say they rot out quickly. The space between 
the studding should run up and down and should 
be well ventilated from the outside. If this precau- 
tion is taken the boarding will last a number of years. 
The outside may be covered with single board or 
double, as the owner may think advisable. 

The Round Silo. — This seems to be the favorite 
plan of late years, and they are constructed in nu- 
merous ways. Half-inch boards sprung to fit up- 
right studding, put on double thick, breaking joints, 
with building or tarred paper between, and clap- 
boarded outside. 

Others make several circular joists out of inch 
boards nailed together, and use matched boards 
for the inside, nailed up and down. 

Stave Silos. — This seems to be the favorite of the 
wooden structures. I have seen many of these stave 
silos, and the one I would copy is built as follows, on 
a leveled cement wall, built as shown. Set on end 
four or six or eight (according to diameter of silo), 
2X4 inch oak scantlings or other hard wood, 
planed. Bend the five-eighth inch round steel rods. 



The Silo. 



219 




DCkttetN 



5ecMon Of Kov\-\^ 
Silo 5howif\g Doors 




^tVv??=?^ 5^^T^^ 



W /-6">t 



220 



.Ensilage. 



that form the hoops to the circle of the silo. Bore 
holes through these 2X4 scantling for the hoops 
to pass, through. The scantling is set edgewise 




Pl^^r^ of T\our\<^ SHo. 

I' ^' 3' "h' ^ 



Sccvlc; 



I I I 



and forms a stave of the silo, as shown. When 
these are hooped and set up, the setting up of the 
$taves on the inside will be a very easy task. These 



The Silo. 



221 




"Round 5'ilb. 



22 2 Ensilage. 

hoops are made in sections, three or four pieces to 
each hoop, and are afterward drawn together by 
nuts on each end, not shown in the cut, as they come 
through the two by four. The doors or openings 
are nailed to a batten, shaped to fit the circle. They 
are then sawed out, and an inch board is put on, as 
shown, to form a jam. The doors are taken down 
as the silage is fed out. 

There are lumber firms in all parts of the country 
that make a specialty of furnishing the staves any 
desired length, and the iron hoops for completing 
the same. They are nothing more nor less than 
stave cisterns built plumb. As to the cost, if the 
stave silo is enclosed, there is little difference in the 
cost of the three styles. It would be useless to give 
figures, as the price of lumber differs, and what 
would be a guide for one would not answer for an- 
other. 

General Plan of Barn and Stable. 

The following plan for a barn and silo suitable for 
summer soiling is shown on page 223. This barn 
shows two concrete silos, and dotted lines for t^o 
stave silos, one on each side of the barn, in case it is 
desirable to stand the cattle facing in opposite direc- 
tions. If it is thought more advantageous to stand 
the cattle facing each other, the two silos may be 
built at the end of the barn, as also shown by dotted 
lines, in which case the manure-shed will have to 
be moved further to the left. The question of 



The Silo. 



223 



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cL 










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2 24 * Ensilage. 

which way the cattle had better stand may be decid- 
ed by the method of handHng the manure. If the 
stables are to be cleaned daily by wheeling the 
manure in a barrow to a compost pile, then the cat- 
tle better stand facing-, so as to be most convenient 
for feeding the soiling crops, which, of course, 
must be brought in on a wagon. Where the barn is 
already built, and there is not room for a drive 
through from end to end, the cattle may stand in 
rows crossways of the barn, or the soiling crops may 
be driven into the barn on the floor above, and fed 
down to the cattle in a shoot. With silos at the end 
of the barn, the silage may be thrown into a wagon 
from either silo through a shoot, and thus carted in 
front of the cows, and fed directly from the wagon 
into the mangers, in case the cows stand facing the 
floor, which is on a level with the top of manger, 
as is the four-foot passage shown on page 223. 

Stacking Ensilage. 

The method adopted in England has been to stack 
the ensilage, but the practice never became gen- 
eral, as they do not grow maize or Indian corn, and 
only the grasses, clover, oats, vetches, etc., are 
treated in this manner when the seasons are un- 
favorable for curing them. While any green plant 
may be ensilaged, corn is probably the only cro]i 
that will ever find universal favor for that purpose. 
The stacking process with hay is a most laborious 
process, and, therefore, has not come into general 



The Silo. 225 

use. The stacks are usually provided with some 
sort of an arrang-ement for pressing the forage. 

That it could be done in this country is evident. 
Two canning factories in Mount Morris, N. Y., 
stack their pea vines, corn husks and cobs. These 
factories ensilage the husks of over a thousand 
acres of corn yearly, and winters feed out this 
stacked refuse to several hundred bullocks. The 
pea vines from nearly as many acres more are 
stacked in the same way (whole). 

This year one .of the factories ran the refuse 
through a cutting box into a rough plank silo about 
thirty feet in diameter. The planks were rough 
just as they came, from the saw-mill, set on end, 
and hooped with half-inch round iron. No roof was 
put on, and when the silage settled, the staves were 
taken down, the silage stood, and the whole mass 
kept in perfect form. Next year the staves (2 by 6 
inch plank) will be set up again. As to its spoiling, 
there is six or eight inches on the sides that rots, and 
is thrown into the manure heap. As to freezing, 
they experience no inconvenience from that. If the 
top freezes a little, it is mixed with the unfrozen ; 
fermentation sets up, and the frozen part is thawed 
out by its own combustion. 
15 



CHAPTER XXL 

GROWING ENSILAGE. 

Amount op Land Required. 

Twenty tons per acre is a good average crop on 
land in a good state of cultivation. The yield per 
acre varies from twelve to fifty tons. If you have 
built a silo with capacity for your herd as above, it 
is easy to compute the number of tons it will require 
for six months' feeding at forty cubic feet per ton. 
As to how many acres you will require, that all de- 
pends upon the fertility of your soil, and the only 
way to tell is by trying. Make a liberal estimate, 
If you have too much, it is not necessarily wasted. 
It can be shocked and husked as field corn. 

Preparing the Ground. 

If possible, plow in the autumn and sow to rye. 
Top dress the rye during the winter direct from the 
stables. Set stakes so as to continue on snow if 
necessary. Next spring plow the rye under, and 
as described in chapter on green manure, page i8, 
this green crop of rye plowed under will be the 
cheapest possible fertilizer, accumulating for you 
all the fall, winter, and spring. In this manner, 



Growing Ensilage. 227 

one field, the most convenient to the barn and silos, 
may be kept growings ensilage fodder for years in 
succession. 

Plow deeper in the spring, the deeper the better. 
Put on three horses and do the work thoroughly. 
Prepare the soil as for field corn, and sow with a 
grain drill rigged as described for sowing corn for 
soiling crops, only the rows should be three feet 
apart. Sixteen quarts of seed per acre, or twelve 
quarts if sown three and one-half feet apart. 

Roll the ground before and after drilling, and cul- 
tivate two or three times with a smoothing harrow, 
teeth set slanting back, or a broadcast weeder. 

When corn gets too high for these, go through 
once or twice with two-horse or single-horse culti- 
vator. 

Variety. 

Personally I prefer the common Western Dent 
varieties of medium growth, a kind that ears well, 
to the larger, coarser, Southern varieties, which may 
produce more tons per acre. 

Harvesting. 

With fifteen or twenty acres of ensilage fodder, 
no one can afford to be without one of the several 
corn harvesters, which will be found most handy in 
harvesting corn and sorghum for summer soiling as 
well. 

. A low truck wagon or a low rack between the 
wheels of a high wagon are quite essential to the 



228 



Ensil 



g^- 



handling of the fodder. A good plan is to use 
three wagons and two teams. A load is brought 
to the cutting machine, and driven alongside. 
Two men are required at the cutter, one to unload, 
the other to feed. The driver leaves his waeon 










Showing the McCormick corn harvester cutting corn on newly tile- 
drained ground in field where the draft trials were made. 



there, and goes to the field with one that has just 
been emptied. The driver loads his own wagon. 
This makes four men to deliver the fodder to the 
silo, and one man inside to keep it level and thor- 
oughly tramped around the edges, the engineer and 
the man who runs the harvester. The cutting may 
go on for a day or two before the filling begins. 
The wilting of the fodder will do no harm (a heavy 



Growing Ensilage. 229 

rainstorm probably would). Some deliver the fod- 
der to the cutter in one-horse dump carts, dumping 
the load at the cutter, and returning to the field. 



Filling the Silo. 

A chute should be arranged to receive the silage 
as it comes into the top of the silo, and be so set as 
to cause the silage to fall in the center of the silo, 
for two reasons : if the silage is delivered into the 
silo from the carrier direct, the larger and heavier 
pieces are thrown out from the rest, and are, there- 
fore, more or less separated on landing inside. This 
should be avoided. Again, if the silage falls into 
the middle, and is allowed to form a stack there, 
the man who distributes the silage to the sides has 
all downhill work, and no attention need be paid to 
tramping except just around the edges. 

The tramping of the edges is best accomplished by 
a man standing with his back to the silo wall, and 
taking short side steps around the silo, then spread- 
ing out another layer, say, a foot thick or more, from 
what is accumulating in the centre, then treading 
again. 

The idea of keeping a lot of men in a silo and 
sometimes a horse to tread is superfluous. If the silo 
is large and the cutting very rapid, before the men 
quit at night or before starting next morning, all 
hands can go in for a few minutes and help, or when 
there are a few minutes to spare between loads, the 
cutter, and feeder, and engineer, if there is one, can 



230 Ensilage. 

give a hand. There is invariably a delay some time 
during the day that can be worked to advantage in 
this way. 

Power. 

In some sections there are men who go about with 
ensilage cutter and a threshing engine, and supply 
the extra help the same as for threshing; and as en- 
silage harvest comes after most of the grain thresh- 
ing is over, there is usually no difficulty in securing 
an engine to do this work. 

A two-horse tread power will operate a good-sized 
cutter, but it seems like too much work, besides the 
horses are all wanted in the field at this time. An 
eight horse-power engine is best, as it only requires 
four to six horse-power to run a very large cutter. 
The engine is easily attended to, and the engineer 
can often give a hand at feeding, treading, etc. 

Pressing, 

It was formerly thought necessary to weight the 
silage heavily. At Maple Lane farm, 1880 to 1883, 
we had two feet of stone on a plank covering. At 
Murray Hill in 1884, we made concrete blocks about 
eighteen inches square, and hoisted them in and out 
with a hand derrick. 

Nowadays little attention is paid to weighting; a 
few inches of cut straw, and a plank covering are 
about all that is necessary, and the majority do 
without that. Silage is heavy. A good day's filling 
has weight enough in itself to press all below it. 



Growing Ensilage. 231 

It is the carbonic acid gas which it generates in 
the process of fermentation that is relied upon to 
preserve the silage. This is heavier than air. The 
first stage toward decay is the lactic, then the alco- 
holic, then the acetic. At this point, if the air is 
replaced by the carbonic acid gas which this stage 
of decomposition produces, the air, as before stated, 
is expelled and fermentation ceases. The next 
stage to the acetic is decay. When the silage is re- 
moved from the silo and comes in contact with the 
open air, fermentation begins where it left off, as in- 
dicated by the heat that is speedily generated. 

The only pressing that is necessary, if any at all, 
is to put on enough to press together or exclude as 
much air as possible from the last two feet of silage. 
It is a good plan to leave one or two days' cutting to 
put on top after the silo has settled. Or, where 
there are two silos, they can be cut into alternate 
days. 

As to slow or rapid filling, there is little to be said 
in favor of either. 

The question of the quality of the silage, I believe, 
is not owing at all to whether the silo was filled fast 
or slow, but to the condition of the corn itself when 
the harvesting begins. I have ensilaged corn in its 
greenest possible stage, before there was a sign of a 
leaf, when the ears were not yet fit for roasting or 
boiling; also when the ears were glazed and the 
leaves were dying, and still later when it was fit to 
cut and shock, ears ripe, husks ripe, bottom leaves 
ripe; then again after a severe frost, and again 



232 



Ensilage. 



with sweet corn after all the ears had been plucked 
for the canning factory. Some farmers cut and 
shock their ensilage, and after standing for a month 
or six weeks ^n the field, they ensilage it, and even 
then it makes good silage. I have had as sour ensi- 
lage from slow as from rapid jfilling, but the stalks 
were in both cases green. The poorest silage, sour, 
bitter, watery stuff, was from the first mentioned, 
the second was better in this respect, and the third 
best of all. 

This leads me to say that corn for ensilage should 
be sown from three to three and one-third feet 
apart, according to size of variety, so as to allow it 
to very nearly, if not quite, ripen as you would for 
cutting and shocking. The thoroughly ripe corn 
makes better ensilage than the green. There is, 
from the moment the ear reaches maturity, a de- 
cided loss in feeding value of the stalk, as shown by 
the following: 

Time to Harvest, 

New York Experiment Station, 8th Annual Report. 

" Yield per acre, and the per cent, of water for 
each period: 





Pounds 
Per Acre. 

18,045 

25i745 
32,000 
32,295 
28,460 


Dry 

Matter. 


Per Cent 
Water. 


Tons 

Water 

Per Acre. 


July "loth full tasseled 


i,6ig 
3,378 
4,643 
7,202 
7,918 


91.05 
88.05 
85.76 
77.70 
72.18 


8.21 


August Qth full silked 


ii.'?^ 




13.97 


September 7th, kernels glazed 

September 27th, kernels ripe 


12.51 
10.27 





Growing Ensilage. 



233 



••Professor Roberts, of Cornell University, says: 
* Fodder corn sown broadcast does not meet the needs 
of milking cows. Fodder corn is mainly a device of 
a thoughtless farmer, to fool his cows into believing 
that they have been fed when they have only been 
filled up. ' 

*' While the tons of water decreased as it neared 
maturity, the dry matter steadily increased. From 
the first date to the last the dry matter increased 
4.8 times, 2.r., 1,619 to 7,916 lb. per acre, while the 
digestible albuminoids increased." 



July 30th 

August gth , . . . 
August 2lSt. . . , 
September 7th 
September 27th 



Starch 
Per Acre. 



122.23 

491.25 

706.74 

1,734.96 

2,852.96 



Digestible 
Albuminoids. 



117-37 
205.79 
207 03 
315-42 
326.21 



Corn Per Acre. 



July 30th 

August 9th. .. . 
August 2ISt . . . 
September 7th. 
September 27th 



Albuminoids. 



23977 
436.76 
478.69 
643-86 
677.78 



Carbohydrates. 



1,168.10 
2,272.19 
3,703.26 
6,005.67 
6,561.64 



Fat, 



72.20 

167-75 
228.90 

259-99 
314-34 



" Corn in the shock loses thirteen to fifteen per cent, 
of dry matter." 

Covering. 

Bran as a Covering. — Mr. Henry Woods, of Eng- 
land, was the first, I believe, to suggest the practice 
of covering- the ensilage with bran. He sa^s : " J 



2 34 Ensilage. ^m 

chose this covering in order to exclude the air by a 
cleaner and also a more effectual mantle than soil. M 
A shrinkage goes on, soil has a tendency to crack, " 
making openings that admit the air, and some por- 
tions of the soil, at least, work down into the ensi- 
lage. Moreover, there is the immense advantage of 
perfect cleanliness combined with usefulness. " He 
wrote this in 1883. In 1884 he says, "Further ex- 
perience has confirmed me in this view, i.e., a layer 
of bran over the boards not less than four or five 
inches in depth is the best possible covering." 

He adds in substance, by way of caution, that some 
have fallen into a great mistake of putting the bran 
under the planks instead of over, in which case the 
bran was injured for feeding purposes. 

The method that seems to have met with most 
universal favor in the States is to cut or spread over 
the top grass, then boards or planks. Others have 
covered with plank and earth, and report most favor- 
ably. Others still have put no covering at all over 
the silage except boards, while still others claim that 
the silage keeps better if planked and weighted. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
FEEDING ENSILAGE. 

Amount of Ration. 

Ensilage is not a perfect food, we are told by the 
chemist, and to make it so requires (per cubic foot) a 
few pounds of bran, crushed oats, oil-cake meal, or 
one feeding" a day of cured oats and peas or clover 
hay. As to the amount of grain to be given with 
two feedings of ensilage and one of clover hay, that 
depends entirely what we are feeding for, the dry 
cattle and young things will thrive on ensilage 
morning and evening-, and clover hay or oats or 
peas at noon. If it is desirable to make winter but- 
ter, a ration of the above mixture in the following 
proportions will be found about right: three parts 
bran, two parts crushed oats, and one part of oil- 
cake meal (old process preferred). My experiments 
with so-called balanced rations have not been as 
satisfactory in practice as in theory. I am quite 
satisfied with the above feed. As to the amount of 
silage to feed morning and night, give all they will 
eat up clean. The feeder will soon learn how much 
to give of grain or silage. The best rule is to keep 
giving grain as long as a cow responds to it. When 



236 Ensilage. 

you have reached that point, you have found your 
animal's capacity, and there stop. You will require 
a pair of scales to weigh each milking, a Babcock to 
make occasional tests. With these at hand, you can 
easily find a cow's capacity. To this she should be 
fed to make her most economical. No one can make 
a cast-iron feeding ration. Only an intelligent feeder 
with scales and test at hand can find a cow's capac- 
ity, and you will be surprised to find that two quarts 
of the above mixture a day is one cow's limit, and 
sixteen quarts a day can be taken care of by a cow 
standing next to her. Balanced rations are, no 
doubt, all right theoretically, but there comes in 
capacity of the cow, strength of machinery. A 
small cow may be, and they generally are, better 
and more economical feeders than large ones. It 
takes, we are told, two per cent, of the live weight a 
day of hay or its equivalent to sustain life. A cow 
weighing 1,000 lb. will require twenty pounds that 
go to run the machine. A cow weighing 1,500 lb. 
requires thirty pounds a .day, ten pounds a day more 
to support that extra 500 lb. of carcass. Ten pounds 
a day could be put to better use by being fed to the 
1,000 lb. cow. Ten pounds a day is 3,500 lb. a year, 
or one and three-quarters tons of hay or its equiva- 
lent. At $12 a ton this equals $20 a year, just to 
support that extra 500 lb. of carcass that is no earthly 
use to the cow or owner until she goes to the block. 
A 1,500 lb. cow must yield $20 a year more than a 
1,000 lb. cow to pay as well, all other things being 
equal. This is no fancy sketch. It is a question 



Feeding Ensilage. 237 

easily demonstrated, and when a breeder or a dairy- 
man begins culling out his cattle to those that pay 
the best for the amount of food consumed, he will, 
as a rule, discard more cows that weigh over 1,000 
lb. than under. So much for feeding. No rule can 
be given. Each cow must answer for herself. 

Cost of Production. 

On this subject there is a very wide difference in 
the estimates sent into the agricultural papers, all 
the way from 30 cents to $2.00 per ton. I may give 
the following as an approximate estimate of the cost 
of growing and harvesting one acre, producing 
thirty tons, which is a very good yield, and a very 
good day's work to harvest it: 

Plowing-, seeding-, cultivating $5.00 

Seed, twelve quarts, 60 cents per bushel 25 

Harvesting, three laborers in the field 3.00 

Three laborers at silo 3 • 00 

One engineer, engine and fuel 5.00 

At thirty tons per acre. $16.25 

This makes a cost of 54 cents per ton, to which 
should be added, if you wish to get at the full cost : 

Brought forward . $16. 25 

Manure, estimated 5-00 

Use of three teams, one cutting, two hauling, say 5.00 

Use of grounds 5- 00 

Use of tools and silo '. , 5.00 

$36.25 



238 Ensilage. 

This brings the total cost at about $1.20 per ton. 
The above does not signify very much either way. 
Some may find my figures too high and others too 
low. My ensilage has never cost me much over 50 
cents per ton, as shown in first table. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
SOILING VS. ENSILAGE. 

Comparative Value. 

It has been advocated by some enthusiastic ensilage 
men that, instead of soiling cattle in summer, en- 
silage should be fed the year round. 

This opinion must certainly come from enthusiasm, 
for in reality there are small grounds on which to 
sustain such an argument. I have already said soil- 
ing is as far ahead of ensilaging as ensilage is ahead 
of cured fodder. First, there is a loss of feeding 
value in silage amounting to about twenty-five per 
cent. Second, soiling is more economical in point 
of extra labor (that many seem to think is so great). 
Soiling crops go direct from the field to the cattle. 

Ensilage has to be cut and deposited in the silo, 
then taken out again. All this labor is omitted in 
case of soiling crops. Again, oats and peas, barley, 
rye, the clovers, are more nearly a perfect feed in 
the green state than corn, even before it has lost 
twenty-five per cent, of its feeding value in the silo. 

Again, the change from silage to fresh-cut oats 
and peas, for instance, is a very welcome change, 
and has never, in my experience, failed to increase 
the flow of milk. True, there is a little saving in 



240 Ensilage. 

securing the ensilage at once, but not as much as is 
imagined. 

There should always be enough ensilage to more 
than last through the season. The new crop can be 
put on top of what is left without the slightest in- 
jury to either. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
CONCLUSION. 

vSystem. 

There is one thing especially necessary in con- 
ducting the soiling system successfully. It is not 
capital as some might suppose, for men without capi- 
tal are usually the first to adopt it. It is also un- 
necessary that a man should have a large farm 
stocked and equipped, because the system is equally 
well adapted to a limited number of acres. 

Nor will only those be successful who live near 
large cities, where land is high. Whatever may be 
the condition of the land, it is safe to say than the 
amount of land that will keep one head by pasturing 
will keep four or five by soiling. The rule works as 
well on cheap land as on high-priced land, the latter 
not being necessarily more productive than the 
former. Therefore, if from land worth $25 per 
acre, a farmer sells as many dollars' worth of prod- 
uce as on land near the city worth $200 per acre, 
the soiling system is as profitable to the one as to 
the other. The difference in the profit from soiling 
will be found from the productiveness of the soil, 
and not necessarily in the price of the land. If on 
a farm worth $100 per acre a farmer can keep one 
16 



242 Ensilage. 

cow one year from an acre of land, and another, 
whose farm on account of its location, is worth $200 
per acre, but is onl}^ capable of keeping- one cow a 
year upon two to five acres, the profit in soiling- is 
greatly in favor of the farmer with the cheaper land, 
so far as keeping cows is concerned. 

This is mentioned because it is so often stated that 
"it may pay to soil where the land is high-priced," 
and to show that the price of land is not a sure indi- 
cation that soiling will be found successful in pro- 
portion to its cash value. We can imagine, however, 
a farmer, under the most favorable circumstances, 
failing to obtain satisfactory results from soiling, for 
the want of system. 

Without system a farmer may soon become dis- 
heartened, and pronounce the whole thing impracti- 
cable ; for instance, by omitting to sow at the 
proper time, or the proper amount. Sowing too 
much at a time, the stock are unable to consume it 
in its most succulent state, continuing to feed until 
it becomes tough, when it is only eaten to satisfy in- 
tense hunger. By having too little, his cows must 
be turned into the field until the next crop is in 
condition, thus causing him to become dissatisfied. 

Again, we can imagine a man with plenty of feed, 
putting, at one feeding, sufficient before his cows to 
last them all day; they breathe upon it for a few 
hours, and nothing short of severe hunger will in- 
duce them to take it, in which case his stock would 
shrink in the flow of milk, and increase on turning 
them to pasture, which would lead him to say that 



Conclusion. 243 

the cows did better at pasture, and thus condemn 
the system. 

Again, by not having properly constructed stables 
or stalls, they might become very filthy or unhealthy, 
and the cow would long for " pleasant fields and pure 
air," and this might lead the farmer to abandon the 
system. 

Again, his manner of cutting and feeding might 
require more labor than the advocates of the system 
profess, and he might thus think that the system 
might be well enough for a farmer with plenty of 
capital, a "fancy farmer," a "book farmer," but not 
for him. 

Again, by his undertaking too much at once, and 
getting everything mixed up. The last state of that 
man would be worse than the first. 

But by so systematizing the work that every want 
will be supplied, any farmer can feel sure of success. 
He need not necessarily follow the plan in detail that 
is laid down in the previous pages, for it is not so 
perfect but that it may be improved. If closely 
followed, the system will lead to success ; therefore, 
I may be pardoned for saying that until he learns 
by actual experience a better way, the beginner is 
advised to adhere to the plan pointed out in all 
its essential points. Many things that looked as if 
they would result in improvements, when put to the 
test, will be found wanting. The principal requis- 
ite to success by soiling is system. 

The work of sowing, cutting, and feeding should 
all be placed in the charge of one person, who can 



244 Ensilage. 

be relied upon to do the work as directed ; and when 
the daily routine is once established, it will be found 
much less laborious than it seems to be. The labor 
is comparatively light; it may be performed by a 
stout boy where the number of cows does not exceed 
twenty-five head, but nothing should be left to 
chance. 

When the proper time comes for sowing, the work 
must be done. The cutting must also be attended 
to when the crop is ready. The feeding also must 
be regular and uniform in quantity. 

With a little practice, and if a person is not entirely 
destitute of ability to work systematically, he can- 
not easily fail of conducting the soiling system with 
profit, and also to enjoy the many advantages which 
it affords. I have never heard of a man who hav- 
ing once thoroughly adopted the system, was not, 
ever afterward, decidedly pronounced in its favor. 

Education. 

As Mr. Stewart says, in conducting the soiling 
system successfully, "the need is more for head 
work than for hand work." 

I believe that he might have extended the remark 
to every branch of agriculture, especially where the 
price of land is necessarily high. The day has gone 
by in the older States when a man can follow farm- 
ing, because he does not know enough to do any- 
thing else. It may be done in the West, where 
land may be had for the asking, and so productive 



Conclusion. 



245 



that by "the slightest effort it will produce an 
abundant harvest;" but in the East it is not only 
essential that the farmer should possess a knowledge 
of how to produce a crop from the soil, but how to 
leave the soil in as good condition as before the crop 
was taken, or better. This, in my opinion, is good 
farming ; while he who harvests a crop at the expense 
of the soil is not a true husbandman. 

Farming is an honorable profession, but he who 
tries to obtain by it something for nothing is never 
a credit to his profession. There seems to be among 
some classes of farmers a great antipathy to what 
they term book farmers. Why may every other 
man learn what pertains to the advancement of 
his business from books, and not the farmer? We 
point with pride to this man or that man in the 
medical profession, and say that he is a well-read 
physician; to a lawyer, and say that he is a well- 
read attorney ; to a citizen, and say that he is the 
best-read man in the place. These are chosen and 
preferred for their learning, and their excellence is 
measured by the number of books they have mas- 
tered. 

Again, why should farmers subscribe for two or 
more papers devoted to politics, religion, or science, 
and read them diligently, papers devoted to every 
subject but one? Why purchase books of fiction, 
books pertaining to all subjects but one, and that 
one his own business? Why does he consult his 
neighbor as to his methods of growing a certain 
crop, and follow his example, when, if the neighbor 



246 Ensilage. 

should write out his experience in book form, it 
would be denounced as book farming? Whence do 
farmers' sons get the idea that, as soon as they ob- 
tain an education, there is no use for it on the 
farm ? They are sent to school, taught chemistry, 
botany, engineering, and surveying, but from their 
fathers' examples they have learned to think that 
such an education may do well enough for a book- 
keeper or a dry-goods clerk, but to apply such 
knowledge to an agricultural pursuit is all wrong; 
it is book farming, and yet it is knowledge that can 
be put to practical use on the farm. 

Do farmers mean to acknowledge that their pro- 
fession requires less intelligence than others? 

What is there in farming that requires a man to 
be ignorant? Must a farmer, in getting on in the 
world, move backward like a crab, or as Mark Twain 
says of the inhabitants of the Azores Islands, among 
whom all efforts to introduce new and improved 
methods of farming have failed : " The peasants 
crossed themselves, and prayed to God to shield 
them from all blasphemous desire to know more 
than their fathers did before them"? 

These questions I will leave the reader to solve. 
However, I will venture to suggest as a remed)^, a 
better education for the future farmer. The great 
problem of feeding and clothing the millions de- 
pends upon the success of agriculture, and requires 
of its followers a knowledge that embraces a wider 
and more liberal education than any other pursuit. 

Said the late President Garfield : " At the head of 



Conclusion. 



247 



all the sciences and arts, at the head of civilization 
and progress, stands, not militarism, the science 
that kills, not commerce, the art that accumulates 
wealth, but agriculture, the mother of all industry 
and the maintainer of human life." 

Farmers' Sons. 

It must be admitted that agriculture at the pres- 
ent time has much to discourage the farmers' sons 
and daughters ; but the outlook for the near future 
is brighter. Soon our government lands will all 
be given away. At no distant day, the cities, at the 
present rate of increase (compared with agricul- 
ture), will consume all our own farm products. 
This day is hastening on like a candle burning at 
both ends ; the Government burning at one end, the 
Western immigrant farmers, who are rapidly reduc- 
ing the fertility of their land, are hastening the 
good time from the other end. There is surely a 
good time coming. A day is dawning when agri- 
culture will once more take rank, as she deserves, 
among the noblest and highest professions. 

Let me admonish you to stick to the old farm a 
little longer, and try soiling. 



FINIS. 



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